Getting Back to Your Friends (and Vice-Versa)
by SleepyDrampa
Summary: Another region done, but now what? Well to start, Ash wants to check in on his old (pokemon) friends who the anime may have forgotten about, but he sure hasn't! Then maybe he'll figure everything else out afterwards.
1. Prologue: Setting it all in motion

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or any of its associated properties. If I did, well then I'd have a whole lot more money for starters.

* * *

Staring out the window of the plane, Ash sighed as he watched the region that had been his home for the last year disappear from sight. Maybe it was because he didn't travel around as much, or had more close friendships than usual, but Alola had become more of a home than any of the regions he had traveled through, except for maybe Kanto. Turning to his partner, Ash smiled.

"Well Pikachu, I can't say that we've quite had a journey like that before. And even though we didn't train quite as hard as usual, I still think we did really well in the first Alola League! Although I wish we could have managed to beat Hau…"

"Pikapika, chupika Pikapi!"

Hearing this, Ash laughed, "I guess you're right as usual Pikachu! Second place certainly isn't bad, and I'm really proud of Incineroar and Melmetal for evolving and giving it their all! I was just wondering if we could have won if Poipole was still with us. We never did find another pokemon that fit as well with our team as it did." As he said this, Ash couldn't help but be reminded of all of his other pokemon that had gone their separate ways throughout his journeys.

"Hey buddy, how long has it been since we've checked up on most of our friends?"

Pikachu appeared to think about this for a second, before holding up two digits and shooting Ash a questioning glance.

"Yes I am thinking about Pidgeot and the others. And two years seems about right. I wonder how they're all doing now. Maybe we should try to check on them when we get home!"

"Pikapi, Pikachu!" Pikachu cheered while smiling broadly at Ash and pumping his little fist.

"I guess that's a yes from you! Well, I know that the last time we checked on him, Primeape had won a couple of Grand Prix titles, but Anthony said that he and Primeape wanted to try to win one or two more before moving on. He seemed excited to train in other ways though. Pidgeot wasn't around when we were about to leave for Kalos, but when we were leaving for Unova she said that the flock was getting stronger, and she wouldn't need to protect them for much longer."

While Ash was thinking about what else everyone was up to, Pikachu curled himself up in a ball before squishing his face into a circle. "That's right, Squirtle! Or Wartortle now I guess. Man that's gonna be weird. That was a couple years ago though, so I wonder if he's still a wartortle. And I wonder if Charizard is back in Pallet Town right now or if he's at the Charific Valley. Well at least he's easy to get in contact with."

"I know Goodra and Greninja are in similar situations to Wartortle, since I have their pokeballs. At least Keanan is stationed nearby Goodra's swamp, so I can call and check on them. I don't know exactly where Greninja is, but through our bond, I've been feeling him work less and less, so maybe he's almost done!"

Ash didn't seem to notice Pikachu shift a little grumpily at the mention of Greninja and his special bond with Ash. The mouse seemed to quickly recover though, and pulled on Ash's hat to attract his attention to him, as he had once again begun to pantomime different pokemon. Pikachu started by sticking out his tongue and pulling down his eyelid until Ash seemed to get the picture. Then he tried to stretch his back out into a circle with pointing his ears together. Finally, he kept his ears together, but smooshed himself together and tried to look grumpy.

While this had gathered amused looks from other passengers, Ash wasn't quite as amused, and in fact had a look of great concentration on his face. "Well, the first one's easy. Haunter, right?""Upon Pikachu's nod, Ash continued to speculate. "I don't know about the last one, but what did you mean with the second one?" Pikachu thought about this for a minute before pointing down at the ocean and pretending to sing. "Oh duh, Lapras! Well if the ears together was a horn, then was the grumpy one Larvitar?"

"Chu, pikapi!" Pikachu said while holding his paw in a thumbs-up position.

"Great! But did you forget that we didn't technically capture Haunter or Larvitar, and Lapras said that he wanted to stay with his pod? No? Well we can always check in with Sabrina for Haunter, and fly to Mt. Silver to check in on Larvitar, since the rangers should know where they are. I don't know where we would go to find Lapras though, since the last time we saw him was in Johto. Maybe Professor Oak would know what the normal migration patterns of lapras are…" Here, Ash trailed off, looking thoughtful. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask about them. Thanks buddy," he smiled, rubbing Pikachu behind his ears. "Either way though, we have to introduce our new friends to everyone else before we can look for our old ones, and we can't do any of this until we get back home. So how 'bout you and I get some shut-eye, since it's gonna be a long flight." With this, Ash leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep and beginning to dream of all of his friends, both new and old.

* * *

Hey y'all! This is the prologue of a story that I've been writing in my spare time recently. This chapter is much shorter than the rest of them, although I don't really know how long the average chapter will be. Next one will up relatively soon though! Let me know what ya think about this concept.


	2. One down, more to come!

"Alright Pikachu, are you ready to get home and see mom?" Ash asked as he stepped out of Pallet's tiny airport. Once he had heard his partner respond affirmatively, Ash checked his backpack to make sure he had everything, and promptly realized that the bag was already filled up. Somehow, in the short time that they had been getting off the plane and stretching from the long bout of travel, Rowlet had managed to find his way into Ash's backpack, and was promptly snoozing away. Ash let out a laugh upon seeing this, and shook his head. "Guess some things won't ever change, will they buddy," he said while Pikachu snickered, up on his shoulder. "Might as well let Lycanroc out too, since Incineroar is still adjusting to walking on two legs and Melmetal is too slow to keep up and too big to ride on my hat anymore.

With this, Ash reached down to his belt and grabbed Lycanroc's pokeball, before releasing the wolf pokemon. Lycanroc let out a howl, before looking around, and, upon seeing there was no one to fight, turned his attention toward Ash and approached him. Kneeling, Ash scratched his pokemon, careful to avoid the sharp, rock-like growths on his body. "Hey bud, we're back in Kanto, and this time to stay. I know you've only been here once, so I thought you might want to walk to my mom's house with me. Then tomorrow we can meet all of my other pokemon that I told you about!"

This seemed to get the pokemon excited, and he let out a loud woof before licking Ash on his check and nudging him, seemingly to get the boy moving. "Okay, okay, I'm going! And don't worry, we can't possibly get lost on such a short walk!" Hearing this, Pikachu and Lycanroc looked at each other with dread as Ash started off on what he thought was the road to his mom's house.

* * *

"Well," Ash laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head, "it could have been worse!"

Pikachu proceeded to give Ash a look than managed to convey just how displeased the electric-type was with Ash right then. For Arceus' sake, his trainer had somehow managed to turn a 10 minute stroll into over an hour's hike! Lycanroc didn't seem to be that upset however, and was happily trotting aside Ash as the teen approached his house.

Walking up to the house, Ash noticed the gate was being held open by Mimey, who, clad in his apron, waved at Ash. "Hi Mimey! How's everything going?"

"Pika pika!"

As per usual, the mime pokemon didn't say anything in response, just continued to smile at Ash and his pokemon as they greeted him. Used to this, Ash walked up to the door and knocked twice before opening it.

"Hey mom, I'm home!"

"Oh Ashy! I'm so glad to see you!" Delia cried out, wrapping Ash in a massive hug. "But didn't your plane get in an hour ago?"

"Well I may have gotten a bit lost on the way home," Ash replied as Pikachu seemed to shake his head at his directionless trainer.

"Oh honey! Well introduce me to your new pokemon! I haven't seen you or them in months, since all of you were in Kanto."

"Sure mom! Well this is Lycanroc." That was all he got out before his mom was immediately down on the ground petting the wolf pokemon, who, although usually standoffish with new people, had melted like putty under Delia's touch. "I forgot that you'd already met him," Ash laughed as he turned around. "Let's go out to the back garden for the rest of them, some of them are a little big." Ash strolled out the back door, Lycanroc quickly getting up and following behind.

Standing in the garden, Ash grabbed the two open pokeballs on his belt and opened them, before digging into his backpack for the sleeping Rowlet. Even through this new bit of excitement, the owl hadn't stirred, and so Ash resorted to poking him to try to wake him. Seeing that it only had limited success, he sighed before handing the grass-type off to Melmetal, who mostly just seemed to be trying to not break anything.

"Mom, these are my other three new pokemon: Rowlet, Melmetal, and Incineroar." While Rowlet continued to snooze in one of the massive arms of Melmetal, the steel-type turned to Delia and waved its free arm, accidentally managing to smash some of the back fence while doing so. The pokemon looked at the fence guiltily for a second before trying to shuffle in front of the broken section, although all it managed to do was break another few fence posts.

Choosing to ignore this, Delia turned towards Incineroar, who had picked Ash up and was rubbing his head against Ash's cheek, and squishing Pikachu in the process. The mouse didn't look too pleased at this, and with a short 'chuuuu,' let out a thunderbolt that scorched both Ash and Incineroar and sent them crashing to the ground.

"Mom," Ash groaned while picking himself up. "This is Incineroar. He hasn't quite grasped that he's much bigger now. Neither has Melmetal for that matter. I think both of them are going to need a bit of work before they can battle properly again."

Delia laughed while waving to the sheepish looking cat. "You always do manage to get yourself some interesting pokemon, mister. Why don't I go grab your food and then we can eat out here so your pokemon can join us. Could you come grab the pokemon food though, since I don't know how much your new friends eat." Delia and Ash headed back in the house to grab the food, while Ash's pokemon sat down and started chatting about the journey, Melmetal shaking the ground as it slipped and fell.

* * *

Come morning, Ash and his pokemon were sprawled out in various states across his bedroom; bar Melmetal, who, upon realizing that it was too large to fit in the house, opted to stay in the yard with Rowlet.

Stretching, Ash carefully extracted himself from under Pikachu and Lycanroc, and carefully stepped over Incineroar, who had been sulking for ages the night before when he couldn't fit into Ash's bed anymore. Ash headed down the stairs, pouring himself some coffee and dumping what most would consider to be an obscene amount of sugar in it.

"G'mornin mom," he mumbled as he flopped down at the dining table.

"Hi sweetie," Delia responded, giving him a kiss on his head as she laid down a plate laden with pancakes, eggs, and bacon in front of Ash. "I made your favorites this morning, since I didn't know how long you'd be staying this time."

Ash had immediately dug into the food, but forced the great amount of food in his mouth down before replying. "Actually mom, I think I might be sticking around for a little while this time. I want to see how my pokemon are all doing, and maybe try to track down some of my old friends."

Delia grinned upon hearing this, and wrapped Ash in a big hug before walking towards the door and grabbing her purse. "That's fabulous! I would love to have you here as long as you want. I do have to go to the restaurant soon though. I had my manager covering the early morning shift, but the rush is about to hit and there's no one else working today. I'll see you later honey," she said while heading down the road towards her restaurant.

Happy at how well that had gone, Ash finished eating before getting dressed (no matter how tempting it was to have a repeat of his first day as a trainer) and gathering his pokemon. All ready to go, Ash began the walk to Professor Oak's Laboratory as pikachu pointed out the correct road to keep him on track.

* * *

Ash walked into Oak's Lab and once again marveled at the fact that the professor didn't both locking the door. Or maybe it was just that he forgot, Ash chuckled, remembering how absent-minded the old professor could be.

"Professor Oak? Tracey? Anyone here?" Ash called as he went deeper into the lab, before starting as he saw his old friend bent over a screen.

"Ash!" Tracey cried out as he whipped around, "I didn't know you were coming back!"

"Well, I might have forgotten to tell anyone but my mom that I was coming back, and I only remembered to tell her because she got mad at me the last time that I didn't tell her."

"Oh Ash," Tracey laughed. "I assume you're here to see your pokemon then? They're all in the back as per usual. Bulbasaur should be around somewhere nearby though, since he was helping me feed everyone until just a few minutes ago. Professor Oak was off in Indigo for some meetings the last couple of days, although he should be back in a couple hours."

Just then, someone else discovered Ash's return, and announced their joy at this not just with words, but with actions. And smells.

"Mukkkkkk" Ash's smelliest pokemon cried as it tackled its trainer to the ground in a full-body hug, Pikachu leaping to Tracey at the last second.

"Hey Muk! It's good to see you too," Ash said, patting the pokemon on where he thought its head would be at the moment.

"Ash, have we told you how glad we are that your muk can at least lessen its smell? Because with how affectionate it is, I don't know if we would otherwise survive."

Ash grinned while trying to climb to his feet, Muk not very intent on this happening, but the nature of its body not doing much to help it resist. "I would love Muk whether it smelled all the time or not Tracey!" But then he took a step closer to the assistant and muttered, "but between you and me, I'm really glad too."

Stepping towards the Lab's back entrance, Ash turned towards Muk. "Hey bud, do you and Pikachu want to help me find Bulbasaur? He's usually pretty good at helping us find everyone."

The slimey pokemon didn't vocally respond, instead oozing towards the door and heading right, Ash ushering Pikachu after him before turning back towards Tracey for a moment. I'm planning on sticking around for a while Tracey, so expect to be seeing a lot more of me for a while." Flashing the other teen a thumbs-up, Ash followed his pokemon into the back of the lab, only just catching Tracey mutter 'oh Lugia, I hope he's joking. I don't know if I can take that level of stress.'

* * *

Walking outside, Ash was immediately greeted with a happy growl from Bulbasaur, who had already managed to find his way to his trainer. "Hey Bulbasaur, it's good to see you too. How's everyone doing at the lab?" Ash asked this while bending down to rub his first grass-type on the head, earning a contented growl and a sound of affirmation. "That's great! Well could you help me out and let everyone know that we're here?"

"Bulba-bulbasaur!" With this, Bulbasaur stepped a little away from Ash before charging up and releasing a brilliant white solarbeam straight into the sky. Almost immediately, Ash could hear movement from the surrounding area, although once he looked a bit closer, the sound may have just been his Tauros.

"Tauros! Hey! Calm down!" Ash yelled as the stampeding herd got closer and closer. Bulbasaur had already taken cover behind some nearby shrubs, since the bull pokemon showed no signs of stopping. With a sigh, Ash prepared himself, but as he was about to once again be trampled by his pokemon, he was lifted into the air, surrounded by blue light. Before he could figure out what was going on, he was unceremoniously dropped onto the back of the lead tauros, who mooed loudly upon learning he had his trainer.

"Tauros, could you get everyone to settle down a little?" Ash said to the leader while holding on to his mane. Luckily for Ash, Tauros seemed to take this to heart, and called something out to the herd before slowing down and moving back towards the lab. This slowed pace allowed for Noctowl to land on Ash's shoulder, and begin to affectionately preen his hair.

"Noctowl, did you lift me up?" Receiving a hoot in confirmation, Ash cheered. "That's awesome! I didn't know that you had gotten so strong with your psychic moves. It didn't even hurt me, so you must have some great control right now." This seemed to please the proud pokemon, who began to preen herself after giving Ash a light peck on the head.

Finally, the tauros made it back to the lab, prompting Ash to dismount from his ride and rub him behind the horns. "Thanks for getting everyone under control bud." In response, the pokemon mooed loudly and rammed his head into Ash's chest, causing the trainer to stumble back. "Good to see you too," Ash coughed, rubbing his chest. Looking up, he saw that during his short jaunt with his tauros, a lot more of his pokemon had gathered, and some of the slower 'mons were still coming.

Smiling, Ash held out his arms, and was dogpiled by pokemon before he could even blink. Laughing, he hugged all the pokemon within his reach and yelled out to the rest, "hey guys, I'm home! And this time I'm gonna be home for a long while."

* * *

After almost an hour, Ash finally managed to get his pokemon to calm down enough to where they all weren't trying to hold him down to prevent him from escaping. Seeing this, Ash breathed a sigh of relief and reached for his belt. "Everyone, I want you to meet our new friends from Alola!" With this, Ash grabbed his pokeballs in both hands, and flung them to the sky, releasing all of his new pokemon.

Upon materializing, Rowlet flew up to Melmetal's head and perched there, deciding that this was as good a place as any to watch the group. Melmetal stood there nervously, trying to keep Rowlet in place but not obviously a little unnerved by all the new pokemon. Lycanroc and Incineroar however, seemed right at home, with Incineroar immediately sizing up Infernape, and Lycanroc greeting everyone with a loud bark.

"Everyone, this is Rowlet, Lycanroc, Incineroar, and Melmetal!" Here Ash paused, but ultimately decided not to tell the group about the friends that they would never meet. Poipole. Nebby. He missed them.

Pikachu noticed this though, and quickly jumped on Ash's shoulder and gave him a small static shock. This seemed to snap Ash out of his thoughts, and he gave his partner a small smile, albeit one tinged with sadness. "Thanks buddy. I just miss them." To the group, Ash then said, "don't be shy, everyone start mingling! I have to go talk to Professor Oak, and with any luck I'll be bringing some old friends back soon!" Here Ash turned to head back towards the lab, but he did see Torterra slowly making his way towards Melmetal, which brought a full grin onto his face. If there was any pokemon that knew what Melmetal was going through, it would be Torterra, and he knew he could count on the land tortoise to help his newest pokemon out.

* * *

As Ash stepped into the lab, he suddenly felt an impact on his left calf, and looking down, he saw Scraggy rubbing his head after futilely trying to knock him down with a headbutt. Letting out a sigh tinged with fondness, Ash bent down and scooped up the pokemon before heading further into the lab. This seemed to please the pokemon, as he promptly curled up in Ash's arms as the trainer searched for Oak.

"Professor? Tracey said you would be getting back soon." This call was answered by the elderly professor, who, belying his age, came towards Ash at a quick pace.

"Ash, it's good to see you!" Oak said, stopping in front of the younger trainer. "I do wonder, how did you know I was already back?"

"Oh," Ash said, scratching his head, "I saw your dragonite fly in and assumed that you had just taken her there."

"I should have guessed you would put that together! Well let's go to my office to chat, since these old bones are tired after that flight." The professor proceeded to lead Ash through different parts of the lab, finally stopping after reaching his office. Sitting down with a groan, he continued his train of thought. "So Ash, Tracey tells me that you're planning on sticking around for a while. This is a little different for you, so why don't you tell me what you plan on doing?"

"After Alola, Professor, I think I want to spend a little more time training with my pokemon, and more importantly, I want to track down some of my old friends! I know that Wartortle had been feeling a little out of place with the Squirtle Squad, and Primeape was almost done with his training when I spoke to Anthony last, so I was thinking that maybe some of my old friends would want to come back too."

"Well that seems like a fantastic idea! Oh and congratulations on coming in second place in the league! Certainly nothing to scoff at."

"Professor, how did you know that I got second in the league?"

"Well Ash, did you really think the inaugural Alolan League wouldn't be broadcasted on television? I'm sure you didn't miss the cameras there…" Here he trailed off, noticing that the young trainer was looking quite sheepish, and seemed to be more interested in checking Scraggy's teeth and nails than he was in listening to the professor. Oak let out a massive belly-laugh. "You didn't notice the cameras! Oh Ash, you never fail to crack me up."

"I may have been a little more focused on the battles than who was watching…but thank you! I'm really proud of my team for all of the hard work they put in. But they're part of the reason I want to stay and train, since Incineroar and Melmetal both evolved during the league and haven't had much of a chance to adjust to their new forms. It also seemed like some of my other pokemon wanted to train a little bit harder too. I don't really know what we're gonna do after that, but we'll work it out when we get there!"

"Well that seems like an admirable plan Ash. Who are all of the pokemon that you plan on trying to find?"

"Well," Ash started, counting on his fingers. "I already said Wartortle and Primeape, but I want to check on Pidgeot, since she said that she might want to come back soon. That's assuming that she's even in the forest though. I also want to have Charizard come back, since I didn't see him this morning. I'm gonna call Keanan to have him check on Goodra and see if he would want to come back, and maybe I'll see if Greninja would want to come too, depending on how the region is doing. And Pikachu wants me to check on Haunter, Larvitar, and Lapras too, although I don't know how I would find Lapras, since he would be somewhere in the ocean. Professor, would you know what the migratory patterns of lapras are around Kanto?"

"Well that's quite a list! I don't know where Lapras would be, but I would suggest calling Professor Ivy, in the Orange Islands, to ask. She would likely have a much better idea of Lapras' migration than I would, since that's much closer to her field of study. It seems like you have everything else covered, although I would remind you that since most of those pokemon are still under your license, you would have to go retrieve them in person, since you have their pokeballs. And I suggest that you wait to call Professor Ivy and everyone else, since it's still a little early here, and you wouldn't be likely to catch a ranger unless you call later in the evening."

"Thanks Professor! That all sounds like a good plan. Maybe I'll go out and see if Pidgeot is around then, since that would only be a bit of a walk."

"Good idea Ash. I'll be here if you want to come back and find me for Ivy's number. And you are welcome to use the phone in the lab, just ask Tracey where it is. I'll see you in a while, hopefully with Pidgeot back by your side." With this, the professor watched with a smile as Ash quickly stood up and sped from the room, likely to go find Pidgeot's old pokeball before tracking her down. It was good to see that the teen's enthusiasm was as contagious as ever.

* * *

As Ash walked through the outskirts of Pallet, to where he hoped Pidgeot would be, he idly chatted to the pokemon that had decided to come along. Since Scraggy seemed to be comfortable in his arms, even as he had not been a very cuddly pokemon before, Pikachu decided to stay back and chat with some of his old friends. Unfezant and Snivy had decided to come along though, and Snivy was currently riding atop Unfezant's back, leading to a very amusing image.

"Hey Unfezant, let me know if you see a pidgey or pidgeotto, they might be able to tell us if Pidgeot is around." Ash called, taking a break from telling stories about his first journey around Kanto with Pidgeot, Pikachu, and the others. Scraggy seemed to be particularly enthralled, staring up at Ash with rapt attention. Just as he had called out to Unfezant however, a large shape came crashing out of the trees at Ash. Before he could do much more than blink, he was slammed to the ground.

While his pokemon were quite alarmed by this, and moved to attack the interloper, Ash wasn't quite as concerned and laughed as he threw his arms around the neck of the pokemon.

"Pidgeot! It's so good to see you! I'm really glad that you were here this time, since you weren't around the last time I checked in. The bird squawked and rubbed her head against him, causing her magnificent crest to slap Scraggy in the face. The smaller pokemon didn't seem too pleased by this, and attempted voice his displeasure by trying to knock Pidgeot off Ash through a headbutt. Once again however, Scraggy had forgotten that he wasn't very strong and only managed to attract Pidgeot's attention.

"Geot?"

"Oh, just think of Scraggy like an overeager chick. He means well, but gets a little aggressive sometimes. He can fight well though! As can Unfezant and Snivy," here he pointed to his other pokemon, who had calmed down once it was clear that Ash knew this pokemon. "They're all from Unova, I think I might have told you about them before." Seeing Pidgeot bob her head, Ash smiled and climbed to his feet, putting Scraggy on Unfezant's back as he did so.

"So Pidgeot, how's the flock doing? You said that they were getting stronger last time we talked."

At this, Pidgeot nodded, and proceeded to point west with one wing as she pointed towards herself and then the ground with the other.

"Are you trying to say that you aren't with the flock anymore?" Once more, Pidgeot nodded, glad that the trainer had at least gotten somewhat smarter than when he was younger, as he never would have understood that then. "Well then, would you want to come with me again? I know it's been a long time, but I think it would be fun to be together again."

"Pidgeotttttt!" She screeched, taking off and flying in a circle around Ash before landing in front of him once more.

"I'll take that as a yes then! Well I kept your old pokeball, if you want to see if it still works?" Here he held up the ball, and Pidgeot pecked the center button, sucking her inside. Feeling a little deja vu, Ash held up the pokeball and yelled, "alright! I caught a Pidgeot!" This caused his Unova pokemon to simply stare at him, questioning whether or not their trainer was truly sane.

"Don't worry, that was something that I just used to do whenever I caught a pokemon. I think I've grown out of it, but it's kind of funny. Let's go back to Oak's now though; I have some calls I need to make!"

Ash began walking back to Pallet, cheerfully whistling as he tossed Pidgeot's pokeball out and she was released with a cry. He had been nervous, but felt much better about his decision to find his old friends since this had gone so well. Upon seeing Pidgeot swoop down to catch Snivy, who had reached upward with her vines, he grinned. There was nothing better than friends, old or new.

* * *

A/N: Here's the second chapter of this! Don't be expecting these to be coming every day, but I'm going to try to produce them with some amount of regularity. Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!


	3. In which phone calls are made

"Hello?"

"Professor Ivy, it's Ash Ketchum. We met a few years ago, when I was traveling around the Orange Islands?"

"Ah, yes I remember you! How could I forget the only trainer who's beaten Drake in an official battle?"

Ash blinked as he looked at the woman on the video call. While he hadn't seen her in a few years, the professor looked almost exactly like he remembered her, barring some dark bags under her eyes. This information threw him though, since he was sure that someone would have taken Drake's throne by then, since they had battled over five years ago.

"Really? No one has beaten Drake since then? I mean, he was strong, but…"

"Drake has gotten considerably more powerful since you last fought, although it does help that the Orange Islands don't tend to have very many battling visitors, since Alola is considered to be a much more accessible tourist destination. When I spoke to Drake recently though, he mentioned that he wanted another battle with you, since he wanted to see how much you've grown since then! But I doubt you called to inquire about that, and while it is good to hear from you, I do have some things I need to take care of today."

"Of course! I actually called to ask about a lapras that I used to own. I wanted to see him, since he mostly wanted to stay with his pod to protect them, but I realized that I had no idea where I would find him. Professor Oak suggested that I call you, since you might be more aware of that pod's migration patterns."

"Sure, I'd be happy to help with that, although I may need to give you a call on a different day so I can look into that in more detail, since I don't have the information readily prepared. Variants in lapras are quite hard to study, since they spend all their time migrating, so they aren't a major focus of my research. Why don't I spend a bit of time looking into this for you, and then I'll call Oak's lab and give him the information. The only thing that I ask for repayment is for you to give Drake a call sometime soon. Then maybe he'll stop bugging me about wanting someone new to battle."

"That sounds great! I'm always up for battling! And thank you so much for your help with lapras. Even if you could just give me a general area that would be very helpful."

With this, Ash made some short goodbyes to the professor, and hung up. Looking down at Pikachu, who was on his lap and appeared to be quite bored, he motioned towards the door. "Go on buddy, I still have five more of these to go, and none of them are going to be very interesting." The mouse didn't take long to respond to this, bounding off of Ash's lap and going outside.

Amused by how quickly his partner fled, Ash picked up the phone and dialed Anthony's number, which he had to look through his first pokedex to find, since he had never bothered transferring the information.

"Hello? Oh Ash! Didn't expect to hear from you today. How are ya?"

"I'm doing great Anthony, how are you and Primeape?"

"We're doing fantastic! Although I don't know how much more I can teach Primeape, he's won the P1 title four years in a row now, and seems to be getting a bit bored. Why don't I go get him and then you can talk to him yourself." Anthony stepped away from the phone for a minute, and when he reappeared, it was only in the background, as the screen was filled by a furry pig-monkey.

"Ape! Primeee!" Primeape screeched as it started to bang on the screen, only to stop as Ash held up his hands and Anthony grabbed the pokemon's arm.

"Primeape! I'm not in the screen, remember? It's just a moving picture." Luckily, the pokemon did seem to remember this after a minute, and calmed down slightly, only occasionally banging on the screen. "Anthony says that you've been doing a great job at the Grand Prix, but you've been getting a little bored recently. I was wondering if you would want to come and train with me again?"

This seemed to get the pokemon excited once more, and Primeape screeched before banging his fists into the ground and jumping at Anthony. Quickly, the fighting-type turned back towards the image of Ash and nodded his head in fast succession.

"Well Ash," Anthony laughed from behind Primeape, "I'd say that's a yes. I don't have his pokeball though, so you'll have to swing by here and get him. You remember where the place is, right?"

"Yep! I'll be there in a few days or sooner. Primeape buddy, I'll see you soon, okay?" Primeape screeched at this, before turning and nailing Anthony in the gut, causing Ash to wince in sympathy and quickly hang up the phone. 'At least there hadn't been any surprises so far,' Ash thought, before once more picking up the phone to call the officer Jenny who watched over the squirtle squad.

"Jenny? It's Ash, sorry I haven't called in a couple years, but I wanted to check on how Squir-no, Wartortle was doing."

"Well hello Ash, good to hear from you. Wartortle has actually evolved into a Blastoise now! While this would be good normally, it does mean he's a lot slower and can't get to any fires as quick, so he's been feeling a little off. I'm glad you called actually, maybe you can ask him what he wants to do now, since I'm not sure the rest of the squirtle squad need him as a leader as much." Jenny turned and yelled out into the police station, "Blastoise, get in here! Ash is on the line."

Ash watched in amazement as a massive blastoise lumbered up to the screen, although he was sure it was his old squirtle from the triangular glasses adorning the pokemon's face. "Buddy, you evolved! That's awesome!"

Hearing Ash's voice, the pokemon whipped off his sunglasses and gave a toothy smile. "Toise, blastoise!" Here the turtle began to pose his arms as though flexing, and fully extended his cannons, showing that they were quite a bit longer than they originally appeared. But here the pokemon paused, rubbing his chest self-consciously. Looking down, he mumbled "blas-las, toise."

"I bet you're even stronger than before! But Jenny did mention that you didn't feel like the squirtle squad needed you around as much? Guess even they could grow up after years. Well if you don't feel like you want to keep fighting fire, would you want to come back with me?" Ash asked this hopefully, knowing that the last couple of times he had talked to his pokemon about this, he had wanted to stay with his old friends. This time however, his words seemed to get through to his pokemon, and the water-type grinned, while giving Ash a claws-up.

"Great! I know that I still have your old pokeball around here somewhere, and I'm in Kanto right now so I can come by and get you in person. It'll probably be a few days, but I'll see you really soon buddy! Bye Jenny, I'll see you soon enough."

"Thanks for calling Ash, I look forward to it."

Hanging up the phone, Ash sat quietly for a minute, not entirely expecting the result he had just received. He had expected Blastoise to want to stay with his friends, and definitely wasn't expecting him to have evolved again, although he was quite pleased that the pokemon wanted to come with him once more.

* * *

Dialing the number for the Saffron gym, Ash thanked his lucky stars that having Liza send Charizard back to Pallet was a quick request, as he could already feel the headache that the next conversation was going to give him.

"Ash Ketchum."

"Sabrina, I, uh, didn't expect you to pick up the phone."

"I knew you would soon contact me, although I did not know in what method until just now. You are calling to inquire about Haunter."

"Um, yes, I am."

"You will come and see him and me. We have things to discuss, as much has occurred since we last spoke. I expect you here in no more than a week." Sabrina abruptly hung up the phone, leaving Ash stunned for a moment, before he slapped his hands to his head and groaned.

"Ugh. I should have guessed how that was going to go. And what do I have to discuss with Sabrina? I haven't talked to her since the first time I visited Kanto, and I was just a kid then. Well, whatever. I need to call Keanan before it gets too late in Kalos." Nodding to himself, Ash picked up the phone one final time, and dialed in the one number that he had remembered to put in his newest pokedex.

"Oh Ash! Good, hadn't heard from ya in a little while, figured you'd check in soon."

"Hey Keanan, how's Goodra doing? And the swamp of course?"

"Your Goodra's gettin' mighty powerful powerful from defendin' the swamp, and seems to be gettin' strong in other ways from fightin' that Florges that live here now. Swamp's doin good now that he be around, although he lookin' lonely sometimes too. Ain't much around here like him."

"Well then could I speak to Goodra if he's around, Keanan? No offense, but I would like to hear from him too."

"Yea, I'll go find him. Be back soon." Ash noticed that as Keanan walked out of the small cabin, he hadn't remembered to turn off the phone, and even left the door slightly ajar. Humming to himself, Ash busied himself by taking out his pokedex and flipping through moves that a Blastoise or Primeape could learn, since it had been many years since he'd trained either of his old pokemon. Although, he didn't know what moves the two of them knew, so he'd have to check before teaching them anything new. Hearing a noise from the phone, Ash looked up, assuming that Keanan had returned. In actuality though, someone else had entered the cabin, and looked quite pleased to see Ash.

"Ninja. Gren." Somehow, maybe through his connection with Ash, Greninja had sensed that he might be able to talk to his trainer, and found the quickest way to do so.

"Greninja! I didn't expect to see you. How'd you know I was talking to Keanan?" This proved to be the correct question to ask at the moment, as Keanan pushed the door of his cabin open and stepped inside, followed by a massive, dripping dragon. The dragon smiled as they saw Greninja. Greninja gave Goodra a nod, and then looked back and Ash and pointed at the dragon-type.

"So you asked Goodra? I guess that means that you're about done with your work in Kalos then?" Seeing his pokemon nod, Ash gave a short laugh before looking towards Keanan, who seemed a tad confused with the whole situation. "Sorry Keanan, Greninja is mine too. Didn't expect him to show up, but I guess he's been talking with Goodra."

"Alright there, then it's fine by me. Just were a bit confused that it shown on up here when I weren't even gone that long." Here the ranger let out an annoyed huff at Goodra, who had picked him up in their massive arms and was currently hugging him. "Hey slime-ball, I ain't your trainer, he's in there!"

Goodra looked over at Ash's face displayed on the screen and let out a happy cry, before unceremoniously dropping Keanan on his butt and slopping over to where they thought Ash was. However, they did see a tad confused when they couldn't actually touch Ash. "Goodra! Goo?"

"Goodra, I'm not actually there, I'm back in Kanto. I wanted to see you and see how you had been doing on your own. Are you doing okay in the swamp." A happy trill came from the slug-like pokemon as they shook their massive head up and down, flinging slime and swamp water everywhere. Ash winced in sympathy for the amount of work that Keanan was going to have to do to put his cabin back in order.

"Are you getting lonely though Goodra? I know that Greninja was going to come back soon, and I have some other old friends who are coming back too. If not that's okay, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

Goodra seemed to be in great thought here, or as much as the dragon could. After a couple minutes smiled and nodded again, looking at Ash with another great smile.

"Awesome! But uh, could I talk to Keanan again?" Seeing Goodra move to pick up the ranger, Ash started, "Goodra, it's okay, Keanan can probably get up on his own."

Probably slower than if Goodra had helped, Keanan made his way back to the phone. "Real strong pokemon ya got there Ash. So I take it ya want me to get these here pokemon to ya?"

"Yeah, that would be awesome. I still have their pokeballs though, so maybe if you get them to Professor Sycamore's lab in Lumiose then he could help?"

"Yea, I can do that. Gon' have to wait 'bout a week though. Just made my supply run and ain't got time for a little while. Then should be able to get them up there for ya."

"That would be totally fine, I'm just happy that you can help! It would certainly take them a lot longer to do so on their own. Greninja, Goodra, I'll see you both real soon okay?" With Greninja nodding at him and Goodra waving one of his massive arms, Ash smiled and hung up the phone.

Turning, Ash went to go find Professor Oak. Deciding to check his office first, Ash went deeper into the labs and was happy to find that he had been correct in his guess. In fact, the elderly professor had been snoozing behind his desk. Hearing his office door open though, he started and sat up, glasses askew.

"Oh Ash, back so soon?"

"Professor, I've been back for over an hour. Pidgeot decided to come back, and I've made all my phone calls. Actually, I do need your help with something. I'm going to be gone for a few days, maybe a week, while I'm picking up my pokemon who are scattered around Kanto. Charizard can fly, and is going to be coming from Johto soon, but Goodra and Greninja are in Kalos, and can't get back quite so easily. I still have the pokeballs that they're registered to, so I was wondering if there would be a way that you could help get them here from Professor Sycamore's lab?"

For anyone else, the speed at which Ash was speaking at would have been far too much to deal with upon just waking. Samuel Oak however, had been dealing with Ash since he was a young teen himself, and was very much used to the teen's energy. "Well Ash," he started, sitting up and stretching. "Normally you would be right, and you would have to go get the pokemon yourself. However, since you said that the pokemon would be getting to Sycamore's lab, that makes this much easier. If you give me Greninja and Goodra's pokeballs, then I should be able to talk with Augustine myself and get them back here. It may take a little finagling of the transport system, but certainly shouldn't be a problem for me."

"Thank you Professor! I think they should be there in about a week," Ash said while handing over the pokeballs to the professor, since he had gathered them before talking to the older man. "And I should hopefully be back in a week at the latest, since I'm going to be taking Pidgeot to ride on."

"Alright then Ash, make sure to tell your mother that you're leaving for a while, and more importantly, that you're coming back soon. Otherwise she might get worried and come bother me about it!" Oak let out a chuckle while saying this, although one tinged with worry.

"Don't worry Professor, I'm going to go get Pikachu and Pidgeot, and then go find her before I leave, since I want to get my friends back as soon as possible!" Ash waved goodbye to Oak, and walked out of the office and to the open air of the fields. Spotting Pidgeot sitting by the entrance with Bulbasaur and Pikachu, Ash walked towards the small group.

"Hey guys," Ash said as he plopped on the ground next to his pokemon, Pidgeot reaching over to preen his hair. "Pikachu, I think it's about time we go and get our old friends. Bulbasaur, I know we haven't been back long, but not to worry, we should be back in about a week. I can count on you to take care of things around here and let everyone know that we'll be back real soon right?"

Seeing his pokemon nod, Ash smiled. "Thanks, I knew you'd say yes but I didn't want to just spring it on you." Standing up and holding his arm out for Pikachu to jump on, Ash turned to Pidgeot. "Hey girl, are you ready to get going? We'll have to stop by mom's restaurant first but then we'll be heading east."

Pidgeot spread her wings and let out a cry, making Ash laugh as he climbed onto her back and carefully gripped some feathers on the back of her neck. Before kicking off however, he turned back towards Bulbasaur.

"Oh and Bulbasaur, Charizard will probably beat us back, so you're in charge of him!" Ash quickly tugged on Pidgeot, causing her to take off just as Bulbasaur whipped his vines towards where Ash was just a second prior. Laughing as Pidgeot took to the skies, Ash smiled. Now that he was going to get his old pokemon, he was sure that everything could only go smoothly from here on out.

* * *

A/N: Got another chapter for y'all! I don't have a backlog for this story, so these chapters are simply coming out when I write them, which means they're coming as the mood strikes me. Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading! 


	4. Monkeys, Psychics, and Ghosts, Oh MY!

Landing in the outskirts of Viridian Forest, Ash groaned as he climbed off of Pidgeot's back and began to stretch his legs.

"Thanks girl," he said, patting the pokemon on her side. "It's just been a little while since I last flew and I had forgotten how cramped up my legs tend to get while flying." Pidgeot cooed at her trainer, and gently nipped at his hair before beginning to preen herself.

Though he wanted to just flop onto the ground and wait for his muscles to relax, Ash knew that if he sat down then he certainly wouldn't be getting up again. Thinking to himself as he began to set up camp, Ash realized that really had let his muscles atrophy somewhat when he was in Alola.

Now that he had set up his tent and bedroll, Ash sat down outside of it with a satisfied groan, glad that it was still summer so he didn't need to gather wood for a fire. Taking out his pokedex, Ash started scanning through the entries for Primeape as Pikachu curled up in his lap with a happy coo. It seemed, contrary to what he had thought many years ago, that primeape as a species could actually learn a wide variety of moves. Though, it was likely that Primeape had stuck to moves that would help him win fights in the ring, so he probably wouldn't have a massive amount of variety. But really, he wouldn't know until he saw his old pokemon again. Luckily, Ash didn't even have to look up the entries for blastoise to know roughly what his other old friend would know. Since he was working as a firefighter, it was very likely that most of his moveset would be focused around water-type moves, with maybe a couple fighting or normal ones to help him move things around or off of people.

As he thought about the pokemon that he was about to see for the first time in many years, Ash realized that he didn't actually know what moves Pidgeot knew. Turning around and facing her, Ash asked, "Pidgeot, would you mind showing me what moves you've learned? I can always use my pokedex to check but it only shows the four most recent ones that you've used, and not everything you can do. And also, then I can see what moves we should work on when we get back to Oak's lab."

Pidgeot seemed to be amenable to this suggestion, and screeched loudly before flapping her wings and taking to the skies, circling around for a moment before flying a little ways away from Ash and turning toward some nearby trees.

Letting out yet another cry, Pidgeot seemed to flow a brilliant white as she suddenly flapped her wings in tandem, causing what seemed to be a powerful current of air to slash towards the trees. Before this could even hit the trees however, she was already moving once more, this time shedding a massive quantity of feathers towards the ground before furiously flapping her wings once more, creating a gale of wind that began to circle around the feathers. Ash gasped as he saw the attack that couldn't be anything other than a powerful hurricane form, but quickly focused his attention back on Pidgeot, as she had begun to grow a brilliant white. Opening her beak, Pidgeot let out an ear-piercing cry as a hyper beam shot out, piercing the hurricane and splitting in twain.

This final attack had seemed to tire the pokemon out however, and with one final screech, she circled her trainer before gracefully landing beside him. Quickly leaping to his feet, Ash rushed to Pidgeot and nearly tackled her with a hug, cheering all the while.

"Pidgeot, that was so cool! And I would bet those aren't your only moves, right? Just some of your stronger ones." Here, the bird pokemon almost seemed to blush, tucking her head under her wing before taking it out and chirping at her trainer as she nuzzled him with her large head. "That's so awesome. Although it's probably good that you stopped then, since we have quite a ways to fly tomorrow, and I'm counting on you and Pikachu to point me the right way!" Ash excitedly said, before rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Since I forgot that we had to go north first, of course. I mean now we go east, so I wasn't totally wrong!"

Pikachu and Pidgeot looked at each other in amusement, as Ash quickly began to babble to his pokemon once again, and they all began to settle in for the night.

* * *

Touching down outside of the house which one of his oldest pokemon had called home for many years, Ash felt his heart begin to pound its way through his chest, and recalled Pidgeot with nary a thought. Barely noticing Pikachu patting him on the head, Ash walked up to the door almost in a stupor, and was only shocked out of it by the door suddenly opening before he even had a chance to knock.

"Ash!" the giant of a man cried, crushing the teenager in a hug. "It's so good to see the trainer of my star pupil after so many years." Letting the stunned trainer go, Anthony looked at Ash, who was only just recovering from the hug. "You're lookin good kid. Much better than the skinny runt who left Primeape with me so long ago." This statement finally seemed to remind Ash of where he was, and the trainer looked up at the taller man with annoyance.

"Who you calling a runt? I was 10 then, of course I was short! And where's Primeape? I didn't come here just to hear you insult me." With the last comment slipping out of his mouth, Ash winced, before seeing Anthony crack up at his brash attitude, and slap him on the back before turning back into the house.

"Good to see that you have some fight in ya. You'd certainly have to have a bit of fire to deal with that hot-headed Primeape of yours." Raising his voice, he called out, "hey Primeape! Where ya at, ya lazy ape?"

A crash echoed from farther back in the house, before a loud screech was uttered and a furry pokemon came ambling out. Seeing Ash standing next to Anthony seemed to get the pokemon excited, and Primeape let out a shrill cry before launching his muscular body directly at his trainer. Knocked prone, Ash couldn't do anything but laugh and hug his old pokemon back, glad to see him after so many years.

"Primeape! I missed you too buddy. I'm glad to have you back, and excited to see how strong you've gotten!"

The mere mention of his strength and battling prowess got the pig-monkey pokemon worked up however, and the pokemon jumped off of Ash before throwing his fists at Pikachu and moving into what was unmistakably a fighting stance.

"I guess Primeape wants to fight you before he comes back Ash! Come on out back, we've got our training grounds there." Anthony was chuckling as he walked through his house and exited out the back door, Primeape following close behind. Ash and Pikachu looked at each other for a moment before beginning to laugh themselves. They shouldn't have expected anything different from their old friend; he was a prime example of his species after all.

* * *

Standing on one end of a dirt training field, Ash grinned as he stared at the bouncing form of his first fighting-type. Primeape seemed to be raring to go, bouncing from one foot to another and occasionally screeching at Pikachu, who stood on Ash's side of the field, cheeks crackling with electricity.

"Hey Primeape, you ready to go?" Hearing a positive response, Ash took a step backwards as he called out to Pikachu. "Start out with a thunderbolt buddy! Let's test him out."

Letting out a small cry, Pikachu darted forward as he shot out a bolt of electricity at Primeape, only for the other pokemon to bounce out of the way. The fighting-type then proceeded to charge forward at Pikachu, before suddenly speeding up, with his fist blasting at the mouse. Without any commands, Pikachu rolled out of the way of Primeape's fist and blasted a wave of electricity at the pig-monkey that was too fast to dodge.

"Good job Pikachu, now back up and prep an electroweb! It looks like Primeape is pretty fast so we need to slow him down. Try to avoid getting hit too; those punches could do a whole lot of damage."

Nodding in response, Pikachu began to shape his electricity into the shape of a web, and then prepared to fire it at Primeape, who was just finishing shaking the shocks out of his fur. Before Pikachu could attack however, Primeape screeched loudly at the electric-type, causing him to flinch slightly, and then charged at the smaller pokemon in a flurry of blows. The two pokemon began a frenzied dance, with Primeape trying his best to hit the more agile pokemon and Pikachu doing his best to avoid getting slammed.

While Ash couldn't tell exactly what the moves Primeape was using were, he could determine that the pokemon seemed to be using many different attacks, rather than just sticking with one. Coming to a decision, he called out to Pikachu, "you're not gonna win like that buddy! Get ready, and when you have an opportunity slam an iron tail into the ground!"

Pikachu didn't audibly respond to this, but Ash saw his ears twitch in response. What actually confirmed that his partner had heard him though, was when, the moment Pikachu had a moment to breathe, he whacked his shimmering tail into the dirt, sending grit directly into Primeape's eyes. Primeape screamed in anger and pain, but even as he was blinded he managed to shoot a foot out and send Pikachu flying with a glowing foot. This momentary victory didn't calm the pokemon down however, and he began to show the rage that his species was known for as he dug his fists further into his eyes. Seeing that his pokemon seemed to be getting quite frustrated, Ash called out to Pikachu, who had been thrown back quite a ways and was just picking himself up from the ground.

"Let's finish this up buddy, but keep your distance. I think he's gonna start thrashing soon and you wouldn't be able to take too many of those blows. Hit him with thunderbolts and electro balls, but keep moving in a circle, don't let him know where you are."

Heeding his trainer's commands, Pikachu began to run in circles around Primeape, shooting out thunderbolts as he went. As he was hit by each bolt of electricity, Primeape snarled and turned in that direction, only to be startled as he was hit from behind. It didn't take long before the fighting-type was looking worn out, but the last shocks had finally helped to get the dirt out of his eyes. Now glaring at the mouse, Primeape screeched once more and charged at the mouse, a faint glow surrounding him as his fists flew.

"Alright Pikachu," Ash called to the mouse, who looked pretty tired himself, "let's finish this with a move we haven't used in a while! Use volt tackle!"

As Primeape got ever closer, Pikachu turned and charged right at him, electricity wreathing his form.

"Pika, pika, pika, pika, pika, pika, chu!"

Pikachu slammed into the larger pokemon, creating a small explosion as his tiny body blasted the larger one back, sending Primeape flying into the dirt. As the mouse panted from the exertion, he looked to see that the other pokemon was unmoving, and had his eyes closed in unconsciousness. Here, Pikachu turned to his partner and gave him a thumbs-up, cheering.

"Good job buddy!" Ash called as he reached into a pocket. Pulling out a miniaturized pokeball, Ash enlarged it and pointed it at Primeape, recalling him and placing the ball onto his belt. Pikachu proceeded to run towards Ash and jump up to his shoulder, earning himself a scratch behind the ears.

"Nice battle you two," Anthony yelled from the sidelines as he walked towards the pair. "Lucky that Primeape's a bit out of practice with traditional battling though. He's a lot stronger than that in the ring, but most fighting types would never use those kind of tactics."

"I'm counting on it!" Ash exclaimed, mirroring his partner's earlier gesture. "If the rest of his moves are as strong as the hit that he got on Pikachu then we'll have no problem." Here he took a different pokeball and released Pidgeot, climbing onto her back as he did so. "I'd love to stay and talk, but I want to get to Saffron before dark, and I want to get Pikachu and Primeape to a pokemon center too."

"No problem there. Just make sure that you shoot me a line every now and then so I can see how Primeape's doing! He's been here for quite a while so I'd to hear from him every once in a while."

"Of course! I'll make sure that I call so that you can talk to him, although I can't promise how often that will be." Waving goodbye, Ash urged Pidgeot to take to the skies as they turned towards Saffron, and Sabrina.

* * *

The next morning, as he walked from a pokemon center to the Saffron gym, Ash pondered what he would find at the gym. Last time he had interacted with Sabrina in person had been many years ago, and she wasn't exactly sane when that happened. While she hadn't seemed too off when he had spoken with her on the phone over the years, he still didn't totally know what to expect, and was justifiably nervous.

Steeling himself, Ash took a deep breath and pushed the double doors of the gym open, stepping inside. After only a couple steps inside the gym, Ash reeled back as a figure silently appeared directly in front of him. Taking a second to calm himself, Ash blinked as a kadabra had teleported to him, and was currently reaching out its hand.

"Do you want me to take your hand?" As he asked this, Ash felt something in his mind give an affirmative response, albeit without vocalisation.

Though he didn't have any psychic types himself, luckily, Ash had helped to train a number of them, and wasn't too alarmed by this action. Deciding that it was probably fine, Ash reached out and gently laid his hand on top of the kadabra's, only to immediately be transported to what looked to be a different part of the gym. Turning towards the only other figure within this larger room, Ash noticed the kadabra crossing its arms before vanishing from the room with a small flash.

"Hello Ash Ketchum."

"Hi Sabrina," Ash sighed as he walked towards the older woman, who at present was levitating cross-legged in the middle of what appeared to be a training arena. "Little bit flashy there, but it certainly got me here faster."

Amusement flashed across the gym-leader's face, and she looked towards Ash with a small smile on her face. "I am glad you decided to visit me, and quicker than I expected. I will do you the courtesy of not speaking inside your mind, as I have been told that it can make some uncomfortable."

Ash rubbed the back of his head and looked towards Pikachu, who gave a partial shrug, before replying. "I appreciate the thought, although it doesn't bother me that much anymore. Too many psychics and psychic-types speaking in my head for me to not be used to it by now. But what did you want to talk about? I'd love to see Haunter, but you made it sound like there was something else too."

Sabrina seemed to lose some of her mirth at this, and gained a serious expression before suddenly dropping to the floor as her shadow reached out and pinched her. Rubbing her back in discomfort, she grumbled before standing up as her hands began to glow blue with power. Sabrina reached back towards her moving shadow, and almost reached inside it before drawing out her fist, which was closed around a laughing spectre.

"Well, you did want to see Haunter, so here he is. He's become quite a handful recently, although that may be my fault, as I mentioned that you were going to be visiting and he became excited." Releasing the ghost, Haunter swooped around Sabrina's head for a moment before floating over to Ash. With obvious glee, Haunter dipped down in front of the teen and stuck out his tongue before gripping his eye socket in his hand and wrenching it down, revealing a rapidly circling eyeball. Seeing that he had successfully startled Ash, the ghost-type cackled and grabbed Pikachu in his disembodied hands, looping up towards the ceiling and tossing the mouse back and forth.

Sabrina raised her brow at Ash as he just seemed to laugh at his partner's predicament, and made no move to get him down. Seeing her expression, Ash chuckled. "Pikachu's fine. It's pretty obvious that Haunter is just happy to see us, and he's not making any attempt to hurt Pikachu. If he was, well then Pikachu would just stop him. We may be out of practice, but we're certainly not weak anymore."

"Indeed. In that case, maybe it would be best if Haunter were to travel with you for a time. He does like to spend most of his time in my shadow, and that way you have another pokemon who is ready most of the time."

"Sure, I'd be happy to have Haunter come with me, but what do you mean by having another pokemon ready? Is something happening in Kanto?"

Here Sabrina sighed deeply, before seating herself on the ground and motioning for Ash to do the same. "I have been avoiding this conversation for some time, but it is clear that it must happen now, before events start to begin in force. I have been following your journey for some time Ash, even the parts that are hidden from most of the populace. I believe you are aware of what I am referring to, and the events in Alola as of late are no exception."

Ash grimaced as he looked up, although his usual distraction was still getting tossed around by Haunter. Ash sighed as he leaned back on his hands, before looking back towards Sabrina. "Yes… I am aware of what you're referring to, although I am curious about how exactly you've heard about these things. As far as I know, gym-leaders don't usually have the clearance to hear about many of these events."

Sabrina allowed herself a small grin at these words, and laughed lightly before replying. "Who says I was given clearance? I simply receive flashes of the events in question, and if I don't, well, it's not that hard to gain access myself." Once more becoming more serious, Sabrina leaned forward and stared intently at Ash. "I am aware you are the subject of many prophecies, Ash, and even more aware that you have been in contact with many, many legendaries. They have left their marks on you, in more ways than one. No one else has survived even a fraction of your encounters with legends unscathed. To have done so is both a blessing and a curse. It is clear to you, I am sure, that you no longer have much of a choice in your interactions with the legendaries, and you will be drawn in whether you like it or not."

Seeing Ash nod, albeit unwillingly, in response to her words, Sabrina continued. "It is not fair that you must deal with this on your own, but nevertheless, you must." It was at this point that Sabrina's eyes began to glow brightly, causing Ash to sit up in alarm and Pikachu and Haunter to quickly dive down and hover over Ash's shoulder. Sabrina's voice seemed to take on an unearthly quality as her eyes became unfocused. "Ash Ketchum. Chosen One. The convergence has begun, and once more the fate of our world is in your hands. The hands of time are frozen, and the keepers of power are helpless to act. Only through your actions may we be saved, and though we may help you, it is only through you that we may avoid complete destruction. Everyone's lives hang in the balance, and it is up to you to save them. Good luck."

With these last words, Sabrina slumped to the ground, eyes closed in apparent pain. Crying out in alarm, Ash rushed to her side and lifted her up, only for Sabrina to grimace and push herself upright, rubbing her eyes before opening them.

"Well that was unpleasant. While I knew that I needed to speak with you, I didn't know that was going to happen."

"Are you okay? What was that anyway?"

"That, Ash Ketchum, is what happens when a powerful legend decides to take over the body of a psychic to speak with the chosen one." Seeing that Ash was about to apologize, Sabrina held up her palm. "It is not your fault, although I do wish they would find less painful ways of doing this, as it is getting quite tiresome. However, I must rest now, so it would be best for you to depart." Shakily getting to her feet, Sabrina held out her hand, only for a pokeball to appear in it and a powerful looking Alakazam to teleport next to her.

"Here is Haunter's pokeball, although I warn you that he is not fond of it and will prefer to spend his time in your shadow whenever possible. I only suggest putting him in there during long flights. Now if you wouldn't mind, I must rest. Kadabra," here she snapped her fingers, causing the same kadabra that had teleported Ash to Sabrina to appear, "will take you back to the pokemon center. I will wish to speak with you about what I said in the future, but that time is not now."

Ash scrambled to his feet, and held out his hands for Pikachu, as Haunter dove into his shadow. A chill ran up the trainer's spine as he realized that it would probably take a while to get used to the ghost. Unlike psychics, Ash hadn't had nearly as much experience with ghosts, and he had no real idea of how to deal with or train them. "Thank you for all your help Sabrina, and I wish you a swift recovery." Here Ash gave a short bow, which Sabrina matched with a smile and inclination of her head.

"Thank you. Kadabra?" Its spoon flashing with psychic power, Ash and his pokemon suddenly appeared within the lobby of the pokemon center he was staying at. Kadabra looked at the trainer for a moment before disappearing again, presumably returning to the gym.

Flopping down on the nearest couch, Ash groaned in frustration. As Haunter emerged from his shadow with a grin, Ash put his arm over his eyes.

"Why is it always me?"

Pikachu patted his arm in sympathy. Haunter cackled and pinched his other arm.

* * *

A/N:Hey y'all. Apologies for the delay on this one, work has been a pain. Further apologies for any grammatical errors you may find. I had a massive headache today and wasn't able to edit it properly, but didn't want to delay any longer. This also means that the spacing might be a little off, but if it is I'll fix it in the near future. Also, would anyone be opposed to some minor swearing in this fic? Wouldn't be anything severe, but as I'm writing this Ash I find it harder to not just drop some as stuff becomes a little more serious. Might mean I would have to up the rating to T, but that would be it. As always, thanks for reading, and let me know what you think.


	5. The Training Begins!

As Pidgeot landed on the outskirts of the town that one of his oldest pokemon had resided in for years, Ash couldn't help but be grateful that it hadn't taken him too long to readjust to flying with her.

"Thanks girl. Want to stay out here while I go track down War- I mean, Blastoise?"

Getting a positive shriek in response, Ash chuckled before scratching Pikachu behind his ears and releasing Haunter from his pokeball. The ghost emerged with a hiss at the bright sun, and quickly ducked into Ash's shadow. Haunter wasn't exactly fond of being out in the daytime unless he didn't have to be in the sun. While Ash knew that the sun didn't really hurt Haunter in any quantifiable way, according to Sabrina it was just an odd quirk he had picked up from somewhere. Shaking his head, Ash hoped that messages from Sabrina wouldn't become a regular thing. He didn't mind casual contact, but he certainly didn't want her to bring up her warning again. All he wanted to do was put that out of his mind for now. And really, how did she even get his number!

As Ash was a little preoccupied, when the wayward trainer began to come close to the police station, Pikachu smacked the back of his head to get his attention.

"Oh, I guess we're there. Thanks Pikachu."

Entering the station, Ash blinked as he saw a group of wartortle and squirtle scrapping near the entrance. One of the wartortle apparently heard him come in, and barked something at the rest of the group before running off towards the back of the station. The rest of the squad then proceeded to stand before him and cross their arms, leaving him with the sight of one wartortle and two squirtle, all wearing very familiar circular glasses.

"Hey guys," Ash said upon recognizing the position of the pokemon. Been a while. Do you remember Pikachu?" Here Pikachu jumped to the ground, and walked up to the wartortle, who looked at Pikachu for a moment before holding out his fist for the mouse to bump. Pikachu bumped the pokemon's fist, before looking up as he caught the sound of a much larger creature coming out of the back of the station. Ash looked up as Pikachu ran off, although his partner didn't get far before he suddenly jumped up on top of a blastoise. It took a second, but Ash finally remembered that this was his blastoise! While happy to see Pikachu, who was now chattering happily atop Blastoise's head, Blastoise was even happier to see Ash, who was walking towards the turtle pokemon.

"Blastoise! You're so big now! I don't think that I could pick you up anymore."

As Ash said this last sentence, a smirk appeared on Blastoise's face, and the large pokemon sped up. While Pikachu figured out what the water-type was about to do pretty quickly, it took Ash a second or two longer, and he wasn't able to jump out of the way like his partner.

With a resounding crash, Ash was slammed to the floor by one, massive, turtle. Ash laid on the floor groaning in pain as Blastoise had his arms around his trainer. Since Ash didn't seem to be moving anytime soon, Blastoise took it upon himself to lift Ash up and put the teen on his feet, taking off his glasses in the same motion.

"Ow…" Ash groaned, slumping to the floor with his back against the receptionist's desk. This last crash had finally been enough to draw the attention of someone within the station, and an officer came out of the back.

"Ash! Glad to see you, and I guess Blastoise is to. Gonna be alright there?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Ash grunted, climbing to his feet. "Just caught me by surprise is all."

Patting Blastoise on the shoulder, as Pikachu had decided the larger pokemon's head made for an appropriate seat, Ash turned towards Jenny.

"This guy's gotten a lot bigger I see," Ash said as he looked Blastoise up and down, noting that the pokemon stood a few inches higher than Ash.

"Well you've grown a bit yourself! But yes, Blastoise seems to be a little above six feet tall, and while it's a little taller than average, it's not that much bigger. You just haven't seen him since he was a tiny squirtle."

"Ha, guess you're right. Well, Blastoise, do you want to say goodbye to everyone before we get on the road?" Ash returned the nod his pokemon gave him, and caught Pikachu with his left hand as he held his right out towards Jenny. "I have to thank you for caring for him for so many years. I know that he can be a bit of a handful sometimes, and I really do appreciate you helping me help him."

"It was no trouble! The rest of the squad was so much more effective with him at the helm, and I doubt they would have continued for even half as long without him here. Make sure he gives me a call every once in a while though? Been here for long enough that I'm a bit fond of the big guy."

"Don't worry, I will. And I'm gonna be in Pallet for the foreseeable future so it shouldn't be much of a problem at all. It's a little easier to call when I actually have access to a phone."

As Jenny chuckled at his rather poor joke, Ash looked over towards Blastoise, who seemed to be in the middle of a rather complicated handshake that involved both wartortles, one of the squirtles, and for some reason, a bowling ball. All of this while comforting the other squirtle, who didn't seem to be pleased with Blastoise's decision to leave, and was gripped onto the larger pokemon's leg. As Blastoise gently tugged the squirtle off and handed him to the wartortles, he turned back towards Ash.

"Ready to go back to Pallet bud?"

"Toise, Blastoise!" The shell pokemon cried while flashing Ash a thumbs up and putting his sunglasses back on.

"Good. And you might be surprised to find that there's another pokemon back at the ranch who likes sunglasses just as much as you do." As Blastoise's jaw dropped at this new piece of information, Ash recalled him while laughing and waving to Jenny and the Squirtle Squad as he left the station, eager to return to Pallet Town.

* * *

"Hey Tracey," Ash said while walking in through the side door of Oak's Lab, causing the Pokemon Watcher to jump and spin around.

"Ash! Arceus, I thought I told you not to do that! And you could have given us some warning on when you were planning on coming back." Tracey said, holding a hand over his heart.

"Eh, where's the fun in that? Besides, I'm telling you now, rather than just letting you get all worked up over why my pokemon are acting weird."

"Speaking of your pokemon, these came for you," he said, grabbing two pokeballs from a nearby table. As Ash reached out for them however, Tracey pulled back with a frown. "But you could have told us that Charizard was coming in. He was quite annoyed when he realized you weren't here."

"Well," Ash laughed nervously, "I told Bulbasaur, and that's sort of the same thing, right?" Quickly grabbing the pokeballs from Tracey's hands, Ash took off towards the fields, calling back to the assistant, "sorry Tracey! I'd say that I'd try harder in the future but we both know that would be a lie!"

Reaching an area which he knew Bulbasaur liked to spend his time in, Ash took a deep breath before calling out to his oldest grass-type. Only a minute after his call, Bulbasaur came trotting over and Ash smiled.

"Hey bud, could you call everyone over? Wait a minute though, I need to prep these two." At Bulbasaur's nod, Ash smiled and opened the two pokeballs in his hand, releasing Goodra and Greninja.

Upon seeing Ash, Goodra let out a loud, excited cry and immediately scooped his trainer up for a slimy hug. Ash happily wrapped his arms around the pokemon in response, and let out his own laugh. Looking over Goodra's shoulder, he saw Greninja give him a nod. Smiling, Ash held up a hand, and felt his face stretch even wider when Greninja responded with a high-five. Patting Goodra on the back in quick succession, the dragon-type squeezed him harder for a moment before easing off, allowing Ash to catch his breath.

"Hey guys, I'm glad to see you too. I know neither of you have been here before, so I wanted to let you out before Bulbasaur," here Ash pointed at the much smaller pokemon, who growled a friendly greeting at the two, "called everyone over. Speaking of that, Bulbasaur?"

The quadruped growled at Ash before charging up and firing a quick solarbeam into the air. "Thanks. Greninja could you wash me off really quick?" Greninja fired a quick water gun at Ash, who gratefully nodded at the pokemon while running his hands through his hair.

"Oops, almost forgot," Ash said to himself, reaching down to his belt and releasing the pokemon trapped inside. Pidgeot, Primeape, Haunter, and Blastoise materialized, all looking around in excitement. Luckily they had all become acquainted over the last couple of days, so Ash didn't have to worry about more introductions right now. Before he could introduce his old pokemon to the (once again) new additions from Kalos, he heard loud stomps coming from his right, and remembering what happened last week, Ash stepped behind Goodra as his tauros stampeded past, bellowing as they went.

Ash sighed in relief, only to promptly be tackled from behind with a cry of "Bay!"

"Oof! Hi Bayleef." Ash didn't even have a chance to properly greet his pokemon or get up before he was smashed even further into the ground by the rest of his pokemon, who were quite excited to see him, even though it had only been a week since he left.

* * *

Finally extracting himself from the poke-pile, Ash breathed a sigh of relief before looking up into the face of one of his more temperamental pokemon.

"Hey Charizard," he said, laughing nervously as he took a couple steps away from the lizard, who looked as though he had grown another half a foot since Ash saw him after Unova. "I uh, didn't think you would get here so fast, or I would have asked Liza to wait a couple days before telling you to come."

This was apparently not the correct answer to Charizard's unspoken question, as the fire-type huffed in Ash's general direction before opening his mouth and engulfing Ash in a cone of flame. It was only years of exposure that kept Ash from panicking, although even those years didn't keep the fire from hurting.

Picking himself up from the ground, as the force of the flames had completely knocked him over, Ash rubbed some of the soot from his face as he looked at Charizard. "Do you have to do that every time you see me? You know you would have killed just about any other trainer with those by now."

Charizard's only response to this was to narrow one eye at Ash in amusement, and to snort hot air at his impertinent trainer.

"Asshole." Ash muttered fondly, seeing Charizard crack a toothy grin at his quip. "You'll be happy to know that I don't just plan on hanging out while I'm back." Seeing that Charizard was actually listening to him ramble, he smirked and continued. "You'll have to keep this a secret for a little bit, since only Pikachu knows and I haven't told everyone else yet, but I'm planning on having everyone do a lot more training while I'm here. Gonna try to get some others up to your level, and get some of the others closer to where they can at least try. Not starting until tomorrow though, so you'll have to be a little patient." Charizard had been getting more excited the more Ash spoke, but gave a small growl at this last sentence. "Oh don't give me that shit. I know that you have more than enough patience to wait a day or two if you get some good fights out of it, and you've also been with me long enough to know that if we stay in one place, it's much easier to train all of you." Seeing how this had mollified Charizard for a moment, Ash grinned before turning and stepping towards the large group of pokemon, who were mingling with each other after Ash had extracted himself from the pile. "Now come on, I've got to tell the others, and you can do me a favor by not telling them how serious some of this training is going to be. Hearing Charizard huff in amusement behind him, Ash walked towards the large gathering of pokemon, and was happy to see that the majority turned towards him when he got close.

"Hey guys, I've got something to talk to you about, so if you could listen for a minute that would be great." The group of pokemon somewhat quieted down, with the relative silence only occasionally interrupted by growls and grunts as the pokemon jostled for a better spot.

"Obviously, most of you have probably realized by now that we have quite a lot of new, and old faces. I won't bore you with a lecture on how to treat them, because that isn't what I want to talk about anyways. What I did want to tell all of you is that I'm going to be back here for quite a while. I don't know how long, and I might take short trips, but otherwise I'm gonna be spending most of my time here with you."

Once the cheering from his pokemon died down, Ash continued with a smile. And with me being back for longer, we're gonna do a lot more training." Here the trainer scratched his head in embarrassment. "Starting tomorrow, because I haven't actually made any plans yet and I'm pretty tired. Now, I'm gonna go back home to get a little sleep, but I'll be back bright and early to train tomorrow morning! First though, can I talk to all the Tauros over here," Ash motioned behind himself. "For the rest of you, good night and I'll see you tomorrow!

As his pokemon called out goodbyes, Pikachu ran up to Ash and leaped onto his shoulder, followed closely behind by what looked to be about the whole herd of Tauros. Scratching Pikachu behind the ears, Ash smiled at the bull pokemon and took a few steps backward, before stopping a little ways from the bigger group.

"Hey Tauros. I realized recently that even though I caught all of you, and you all live here, I only ever battled with a few of you." Saying this, Ash pointed at three tauros who were at the front of the herd: one with a reddish mane, one with a scar over its right eye, and one who looked to be over a foot taller than the rest of the tauros. "I know that you've been here for years by now, but I wanted to check if any of you wanted to return to the Safari Zone or be traded to someone who would use you in battles. I would make sure that whoever took you would take real good care of you if that was your choice. But don't feel like you have to do either of those if you would rather just stay here with the herd."

As Ash finished, rambling a bit by the end, he noticed that most of the tauros didn't seem inclined to go anywhere, and some were actively shaking their heads negatively. There were three tauros though, who seemed interested in his offer. Just as Ash saw this, the three tauros came up to him, and nodded their heads, mooing in unison.

"So you three would want to leave? Would you want to be traded or go to the Safari Zone? Um, moo once for the first one, and twice for the second."

The three tauros looked at each other for a minute before all mooing once, indicating that they wanted to be traded. "Alright, guess you weren't getting enough battling around here. It's gonna take a few days, but I'll get something set up soon, okay?" Receiving nods in response, Ash smiled and patted each of them on the side before walking over to the rest of the herd. Quickly, Ash swung himself up the side of one of his main tauros, whose mane was a darker color of red than most of the others'.

"Hey bud, mind taking me back to my house?" Although Tauros seemed a little perplexed by this, it did as Ash asked, and with a loud moo, took off charging towards Pallet Town, Ash clinging to its back and laughing all the while.

* * *

As Ash looked over all of his pokemon gathered before him, he couldn't help but be proud of all that they had accomplished, and what they would accomplish in the future. While he didn't know what he was going to do about the tauros that wanted to be traded (and wasn't it weird to only have three tauros with the group instead of thirty), he was sure that Professor Oak could help him work something out. First though, he had to get everyone training before some of his more ornery mons decided to use him as target practice.

"Alright everyone!" Ash shouted out to his pokemon, who all focused in once they heard his voice. "Since there's so many of you now, I thought it would be easier to do most of our training in groups, although these groups are flexible, so many of you will probably move back and forth. The first group," and here Ash pointed off to his left, "is gonna be made up of Oshawott, Scraggy, Rowlet, Corphish, Torkoal, and Gible." Apart from Torkoal predictably bursting into tears upon hearing his name called, there didn't seem to be any problems with that group, so Ash continued, albeit certain that he'd have to wake Rowlet up to get him to participate.

"The next group is gonna be: Snivy, Pignite, Boldore, Buizel, Kingler, Totodile, Noctowl, Quilava, Unfezant, Leavanny, and Hawlucha." Ash would have to hope that Totodile's boundless energy, and he could already see the pokemon dancing with joy, would be tampered down slightly by Snivy and Noctowl. "Third is gonna be: Glalie, Bulbasaur, Palpitoad, Melmetal, Incineroar, Haunter, Torterra, Staraptor, Gliscor, Primeape, Bayleef, Muk, Noivern, Talonflame, Swellow, Donphan, and finally Tauros and Tauros." Here Ash pointed at his Tauros with the reddish mane and the Tauros with the small scar over its eye, leaving the largest Tauros still in the main group.

"Alright, almost done everybody, then we can get to training! Next is gonna be Krookodile, Goodra, Lycanroc, Infernape, Pidgeot, Tauros, Heracross, and Blastoise." Some of the remaining pokemon were getting antsy, so Ash quickly continued. "And finally we have Pikachu, Charizard, Sceptile, Greninja, and Snorlax. Now let's get to training everyone! Start with some light spars first, but I'm gonna come around and check in with everyone to give more instructions." The groups split up, each heading to a different part of the ranch without Ash's prompting, and while most of the groups would likely get along fine, he knew that there might be some problems in the last group, as Pikachu didn't exactly seem happy to be placed with Greninja, and Snorlax was hard to get to train if there wasn't an actual battle going on.

Putting this out of his mind for the time being, Ash looked to where the first group, that being made up of his least experienced pokemon, had gone. Much to his chagrin, they hadn't made it very far before problems emerged. Oshawott was posturing to no one in particular, Scraggy was trying to headbutt Rowlet, who was already asleep, Corphish was looking at Oshawott like he wanted to hit him with a crabhammer, and Torkoal was crying while Gible tried to eat him. Sighing, Ash walked over to the group, thankful that at least, problems with these mons would be less destructive than problems with his strongest group.

"Hey guys," Ash said, squatting down in front of his pokemon. "Can we focus up for a minute? And Gible, how about you bite Rowlet instead of Torkoal, maybe it'll actually wake him up." While most of the pokemon seemed to focus on Ash as he said this, Torkoal's sobs even slowing to a trickle, Gible seemed thrilled by this request, and released Torkoal to chomp down on Rowlet's head, causing the owl to screech in pain before blasting Gible off with a seed bomb, courtesy of his everstone. As the everstone bounced off Gible's head, Rowlet promptly swallowed it once more. Before Gible could try for some revenge however, Ash snapped his fingers, getting the attention of the remaining two pokemon.

"So for us to actually be training, all of you need to be able to work together, otherwise nothing will get done. I don't know when I'll start moving the groups around, so for the time being, you're all stuck together. For now, we're gonna start with some basic training; target practice and endurance. I'm going to pair you up, and you're going to practice shooting your long-range moves at each other while trying to dodge the moves coming from your partner. The idea is just to go until you get hit too many times to keep going, or until you're too tired to dodge or use your moves anymore. Got it?"

While this wasn't his smartest group of pokemon, there at least seemed to be a moderate amount of comprehension on most of his pokemon's faces. Apart from Gible, who was simply looking at Rowlet with annoyance and not a small amount of hunger.

"Good enough. Well let's pair Scraggy with Torkoal, Corphish with Oshawott, and Gible with Rowlet. Is everybody ready? Then go!" Ash quickly stepped out of the line of fire, and was glad he did so, as Gible and Rowlet had taken his instructions to heart, and were fervently attacking each other. Well Gible was attacking Rowlet at least. With his teeth. Ash shrugged; at least they were doing something productive. The rest of the group were more or less following his instructions, albeit a bit slowly.

"I'll come back and check on your progress in a while," Ash called out to the battling pokemon, while beginning to walk in the direction that he had seen Snivy's group go. "Just keep it up until you're too tired. And no Rowlet," he shouted, seeing the owl pokemon try to lie down, "that doesn't mean go to sleep now."

Luckily for Ash, the next group that he was going to check on hadn't gone too far, but at least were performing in a reasonable approximation of sparring. While they were technically only the next level up from the previous group in terms of skill level, the general attitude of this group was at least much more focused.

As Ash approached the group, he noticed that they had split themselves more or less into pairs, except for Totodile, who seemed to just be dancing between and through each group, dodging attacks as he went. Ash stepped around the battling pairs, taking a second to jump over Boldore and Quilava, who seemed to be clashing with some variations of rollout that Ash hadn't seen them use before. Thinking on this for a second, he decided to deal with it later as he scooped up Totodile, who took a second to even notice that he wasn't on the group before he grinned up at As with a happy growl.

"Hey bud, it's good to see you too. Listen, I know you love dancing, but you've gotta do some training too. Why don't you try to incorporate your dancing into your battling more? There's moves like swords dance and dragon dance that you might be able to learn, and your dancing can make for great dodging." Totodile seemed to quite like this idea, and wiggled happily in Ash's arms for a moment, before stilling as Ash continued. "But first, you're gonna have to do some training, and then I promise I'll help you work on that stuff later. Okay?" Upon receiving a happy 'dile!' Ash laughed and walked over to where he saw Snivy and Buizel battling.

"Snivy, Buizel, can you both come here for a moment?"As he was expecting, two of the more seriously-minded pokemon had paired up to spar, Snivy's type-advantage being somewhat negated by Buizel's greater experience and strong determination. "Glad that you two have decided to work together for now. I don't think your group needs too much direct instruction right now, but I'll be sure to check in later to see how everyone is doing. Although make sure that everyone switches partners a few times to get a little more experience." Here Snivy and Buizel looked at each other for a moment before nodding. "Great. I'm gonna go ahead and name you two the unofficial leaders of this group for now. Your and Infernape's groups are probably going to be the easiest to deal with right now, so I'm going to spend a little more time with the groups that I think are going to have some problems at first, but I promise that I'll give your group some more specialized instructions later. And one last thing," Ash said, shaking Totodile to get the gator's attention. "I'm sure that you both know that Totodile has some problems focusing, so if you could incorporate him into your spar for now to get him interested I would really appreciate it. I think he should be okay after that, but he always did have some problems with starting training."

"Bui bui."

"Sni, vy."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it." Ash put Totodile on the ground next to the two, who promptly grabbed Totodile by his arms and dragged him away. All this seemed to do however, was make the pokemon think they were doing a new kind of dance, and he tried to help, which didn't work all too well. Laughing, Ash turned away from this group, and went to try to track down Infernape's group. Even though they hadn't stayed as close, Ash guessed that he could just follow the explosions and he would have a 50/50 shot of finding the right group.

* * *

Stepping up to the first group that had actually stopped to listen to him, Ash paused and looked over his pokemon before he began. It looked like, for now at least, Blastoise and Pidgeot had paired up, as had Goodra and Lycanroc, Heracross and Tauros, and Infernape and Krookodile. It wasn't much of a surprise that Krookodile had wanted to fight Infernape, nor that Blastoise would pair up with Pidgeot. After all, the two were old friends. Heracross and Tauros were actually a decent match for fighting, although both could use a little more variety in their fighting styles. That left Goodra and Lycanroc as the odd pair out, and while the two would get likely get along well outside of fights, Ash had a feeling that regularly matching the two up wouldn't work terribly well, as Lycanroc could be a bit… enthusiastic, and Goodra was pretty much just calm all the time.

"So I'll keep this short so all of you can get back to training, but I'm glad that everybody paired up so easily. For now, just keep doing what you're doing, but make sure that you switch partners every once in a while. You're the other group besides Snivy's that I'm not terribly worried about for the moment, so I'll leave you to it for now. I will make sure to come back later and give some more detailed instructions, but I want to deal with the groups that are a little more of a problem first. So keep sparring for now, and Infernape, you're in charge unless I say otherwise."

Getting a resounding set of cheers in response to his short speech, Ash smiled and waved at his pokemon before he began walking to where he saw the largest group was gathered. It seemed that while the group he was just leaving was already getting back to sparring, as Lycanroc lept at Goodra with a snarl, the group he was approaching had barely started doing anything at all.

Upon first glance, most of the pokemon in the third group were just lazing about and talking to one another, although Bulbasaur was trying to get everybody training. Worryingly, Primeape seemed to be going after Melmetal with fervor, likely because the steel-type was pretty much the biggest pokemon there. Unfortunately for Primeape though, all of his punches and kicks just seemed to slide off Melmetal, although his body was made out of an odd sort of liquid metal, and most physical attacks didn't exactly do much. The most that Primeape had managed to do to Melmetal was confuse them, although the larger pokemon didn't seem inclined to fight back at the moment.

Running his hand over his face, Ash approached the group with a groan. He had known that this group was going to be a bit problematic. Besides the large size of the group, there was a wide range of experience levels and power, and an even wider range of personalities. All he needed to do for now though, was get them all focused on one thing so that it would be easier to have them train later. Just then, an idea came to his mind and he grinned widely.

"Everyone listen up!"

Hearing this, all of his pokemon stopped what they were doing and turned to their trainer. Bulbasaur especially looked to sag with relief at not having to be in charge for any longer.

"I see that you're all having a bit of a hard time getting into training at the moment, so to start you off, we're gonna play a game. I'm going to have you all play a variation of tag." At his pokemon's confused expressions, Ash continued. "To start off the game, one pokemon will be 'it.' The pokemon who is 'it' has to make physical contact with another pokemon. Once physical contact is made with another pokemon, that pokemon is also 'it.' The goal of the game is to be the last mon who isn't 'it.' The only real rule is that you have to make physical contact with another pokemon to 'tag' them, but there are no rules in how you make this physical contact. Moves are allowed and encouraged, and you can even team up to avoid getting tagged if you want. By the end, almost everyone should be tagged, but the last one who isn't wins. Then they are the mon who is 'it' to start the next game. Everybody got that?"

Once a chorus of cheers rang out through the group, Ash grinned at his pokemon. "Alright then! The first pokemon to be 'it' will be…" Ash's hand moved around the group of pokemon, pointing at each in turn, before finally stopping on one in particular. "Glalie!" The floating head looked surprised for a moment, before his massive mouth widened in a grin, and he began to cackle. "The game will start in: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go!"

Upon shouting 'go,' Ash slashed his hand downwards, and a flurry of motion began in the group. Donphan and Torterra were the first to get away, with Torterra's speed surprising some because of his bulk. Ash expected this though, as the pokemon had begun to use rock climb to make up for the speed that he lost in evolution. Donphan though, just sped away in a roll. Luckily for the stunned pokemon, Glalie still hadn't stopped laughing, which gave the rest of the pokemon a second to run, fly, glide, ooze, or otherwise move in every direction. This finally caused the ice-type to pay attention, and a frown fell over his massive face, before he realized that he could use ice beam to further slow down some of the already slow pokemon, and he began to laugh once more.

As Glalie floated off towards Palpitoad, who hadn't gotten terribly far due to his short legs, Ash smiled as he felt a chill go up his spine. Looking back towards his shadow, he was unsurprised to find Haunter residing there, a grin on the ghost-type's face. Once the ghost realized that his trainer had caught him, he raised a ghastly finger over his lips. Well, where they would be if a ghost had lips that is. Ash just laughed and turned back towards Glalie, who was quickly gaining ground on Palpitoad. "Don't worry, I won't tell. But I am going to be following the game, so don't blame me if you get yourself caught."

It almost felt like someone else was laughing inside his body as Haunter cackled, making Ash shiver in a way that wasn't directly caused by the ghost. That was definitely something that he would have to get used to. Just as he thought this, Ash was hit by an errant blast of water from Palpitoad, who had been trying to knock Glalie out of the sky. Unfortunately for the water-type, Glalie was more than adept at dodging such attacks, and the ice-type had quickly closed the distance and headbutted the smaller pokemon in the face.

Ash caught up to the two just as Palpitoad seemed to recover from the attack, and was frowning at Glalie. "Don't be mad Palpitoad, it's all part of the game. But I have a suggestion for the two of you, if you want it." The two pokemon, upon realizing they had to work together, quickly looked at Ash. "Palpitoad, you can spray water on the ground, and Glalie can freeze that water with an ice beam, making it a lot easier for the two of you to get around. Palpitoad, you don't have any way to shape the earth though, right?" At the pokemon's head shake, Ash continued, "that's alright, we'll just have to add a move to your repertoire soon enough. Try to go after a flying type or fast mon like Donphan soon, or you'll never be able to catch Noivern or Swellow. Now, go get everyone!"

Ash smiled once more as the two sped off, Palpitoad sliding on the ice making them move much faster than they would have otherwise. Much as Ash wanted to stay and watch the rest of this game, however, he knew that he needed to check on his strongest pokemon before they killed each other or blew up half the ranch. He'd been hearing the explosions and other blasts for nearly a quarter of an hour, and had been trying to ignore them by checking on the other groups. Steeling himself, Ash walked to where the remaining pokemon had stationed themselves; just by the small canyon to the east.

Getting close to the canyon, Ash's senses began to take a beating. Ozone and Sulfur hit his nose, and he could feel his body temperature drop from the sheer volume of water vapor in the air and ice coating the ground. Ash picked up the pace, realizing that it might not have been a great idea to leave those three alone for too long.

Once he was in view of the final group, Ash noticed that his suspicions had unfortunately been proven correct. Pikachu, Charizard, and Greninja were in the middle of what looked like an all-out war, with each firing blasts of elemental energy while dancing around the attacks of the others. There were no allies in this fight, although it did look like Pikachu wasn't making that much of an effort to target Charizard, though the dragon wasn't returning the favor. Off to the side of the fight, it appeared that Sceptile had unsuccessfully been attempting to wake Snorlax, who had ignored the relatively minor damage to his body to continue his nap. Quite frankly, Ash was surprised that the rest of the group had even managed to get the bear there in the first place.

Approaching Sceptile, Ash smiled grimly and put his hand on his pokemon's arm. "Hey bud. Let me guess. Pikachu was griping about being put in a group with Greninja, while Greninja pretended to not give a shit. Then Charizard jumped in, wanting to fight both of them, and Greninja just looked at him, before Pikachu tried to hit him with a thunderbolt." All Sceptile did in response to this was nod, although after years of experience, Ash could tell that the grass-type was at least somewhat surprised that the trainer had pinpointed the events so accurately. "Really, Ash chuckled, "it's not that impressive. Pikachu thinks I'm totally oblivious to the fact that he doesn't like Greninja very much, and Charizard just wants to fight everyone. Greninja pretends not to care, but he enjoys a good fight just as much as they do."

Sceptile nodded once more at this, and punctuated it with yet another jab at Snorlax, whose large stomach jiggled in response, but made no motion that he'd even noticed. "Yeah, I see him too. I have a way to motivate him to fight, but I'm gonna take a few to watch these guys fight. See if they can get a little more aggression out of their systems before I try to interrupt them."

With this, Ash turned back towards the still raging fight, as his powerful pokemon still raged. None of them had even noticed his presence. As blasts of fire, lightning, and ice clashed, Ash felt himself beginning to be unwillingly drawn back, far back, to the first prophecy about him that he discovered. Shamouti. The Birds. He hadn't thought about that event in years, but Sabrina's ominous words were bringing more of his clashes with legends back to mind. Ash couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he wasn't there that day, and if those events were the ultimate trigger for all of his interactions with legends to date. It seemed to Ash that there were legendaries, like the moltres he had fought with Fletchinder → Talonflame, and there were legends, like the Birds of Shamouti, and Ho-Oh, or Dialga and Palkia. He didn't quite know where the difference laid, but at the very least, there was a massive power imbalance. Thinking of those events however, sent a chill up his spine, and a strange feeling that he may still be connected to the legends in some way. Maybe not in any tangible way, but their touch hadn't fully left him.

Blinking rapidly, Ash shook his head and tried to put the legends out of his head. Apparently Sceptile had noticed something was wrong, as the lizard as looking at him with some concern, and had placed his clawed hand on Ash's arm. "I'm fine bud, don't worry about it." Turning back to the fight, Ash couldn't quite figure out what had caused those memories to pop up, but whatever it was seemed to be gone now, as looking at the fight only caused him to see his pokemon in a serious, but not quite deadly clash.

Pikachu was racing back and forth, intermittently using agility and quick attack to boost his speed to be able to hit Greninja. The mouse seemed to be working harder than Ash had seen him in a long time, using his more powerful attacks like volt tackle and even thunder to try to take down the other pokemon. Unfortunately for his partner, they hadn't trained quite as hard in Alola as they had in previous regions, and while he was keeping up for now, both Charizard and Greninja looked like they could go for much longer, while Pikachu was pretty winded. Greninja had apparently picked up ice beam somewhere, probably to take down some of the roots left from Lysandre's plan (Ash's fist tightened subconsciously at the thought of the man and how close his plan had come to succeeding. It was all he could do to keep from grinning at the man's ultimate fate). Greninja was using this to great effect, and skating across the ground while ducking into any shadows that he could find and reappearing elsewhere, only to chuck water shurikens at Pikachu and Charizard. Speaking of Charizard, Ash's powerhouse seemed to be doing what he was best at, and unleashing absolutely massive attacks of fire onto the ground-bound pokemon. Occasionally the dragon would swoop down to swipe at Pikachu or Greninja, but with how fast both were, the fire-type had apparently decided that the best overall strategy was to rid the two of anywhere to move. It was working fairly well, although he hadn't scored very many direct hits.

Deciding now was the best time to stop them, Ash shouted out to his pokemon. "Hey, cut it out for a moment! I need to talk to all of you!" Hearing this, the battling pokemon took a second to fire their remaining attacks, and all returned to the trainer's side, fighting halted for a bare moment.

"Thanks. I won't keep you long, as I doubt it would work. Just know that we're not going to be doing this every day for training, so you'd better get most of that aggression out of your systems now, or get real good at holding it in. This isn't the most effective way to train and all of you know it, but I'll let it slide for now because of what some of the other groups are doing."

As if on cue, Noivern tore overhead, closely pursued by Talonflame in the air and one of the Tauros on the ground. A few seconds after the duo had passed, a much slower Incineroar reached the small group, and leaned down for a moment, hands on his knees.

"Perfect example. Incineroar have you been caught?" The wrestler let out an unhappy yowl, but decided that his mood could be rectified with some affection from his trainer, and gripped Ash in a tight hug, fully lifting the trainer from the ground. "Alright buddy, love you too," Ash squeaked out, frantically patting the pokemon on the arm. Luckily for the trainer, this time Incineroar noticed Ash's efforts, and put him down before completely squeezing all the air out of him. "Thanks. Now how many are left to be caught?" Incineroar thought for a moment, before holding up five digits and nodding to himself. "Awesome, thanks for letting me know. Now go back and catch them! And don't be afraid to run on four legs if you're faster like that; you didn't evolve too long ago after all."

Letting out a sound that could almost be construed as a howl, albeit from a large cat, the fire-type ran off in the direction that Tauros and Talonflame had been pursuing Noivern. "Now that," Ash said, turning back towards the group. "Was a very well-timed example of what I'm having one of the groups do. They're playing a variation of tag that I came up with, since their group was having trouble getting started with their training. Maybe soon I'll have everyone participate in it, as that could be a lot of fun." This last part was said almost to himself, as Ash scratched his chin in thought. "But anyway, keep up your fighting today, but it will be different in the future," Ash said, his tone brokering no argument. "Good. Now get to it, but I am waking Snorlax up, and if he takes down Sceptile, then I expect all of you to put him back down for another nap, as he won't go back to sleep voluntarily after I get him up." All four of the currently awake pokemon sweatdropped at the nasty grin on Ash's face, and Charizard, Pikachu, and Greninja almost fled to get away from the trainer and resume their fight.

Looking nervously over at his trainer, Sceptile questioned whether or not he should just go try to join the others instead of dealing with however Ash was going to wake Snorlax up. Unfortunately for Sceptile, he wasn't quick enough in his decision making, and before he could ask his trainer to wait a moment, Ash was already by Snorlax's side.

"Hey Snorlax!" While the massive pokemon didn't move or otherwise respond to this, Ash didn't seem to be deterred. "If you don't wake up right now and fight Sceptile, I'll make sure that you only get half portions for the next two days." This was apparently the worst threat the pokemon could think of, and the perfect way to wake him up, as Snorlax moved faster than Sceptile had ever seen him move before, and quickly turned from a sleeping giant to a very much awake and angry one. After turning and growling at Ash for a moment, who didn't even blink in the face of the snarling snorlax, the bear turned his attention towards Sceptile, who was beginning to think this was an incredibly bad idea. As Snorlax rushed towards him, Sceptile just caught Ash's visage out of the corner of his eye. The trainer was smartly running away from the conflicts as fast as possible, but he shouted one last thing at his pokemon before he was out of earshot.

"Be careful what you wish for!"

Sceptile gulped.

* * *

A/N: Got another chapter for y'all! Sorry this one took a little while, but it's extra long, so I hope that makes up for it! Don't expect all of them to be this long, but frankly I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Probably blew through about 5 thousand words today alone! Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!


	6. Snarling, Slashing, and Snuggling

Rolling over onto his back, Ash yawned and stretched his arms out. Today was the first day that he had allowed himself to sleep in since coming back to Kanto, and he certainly wasn't regretting it. Deciding that he didn't want to look at the time yet, lest he feel guilty about not training yet, Ash instead looked towards the pokemon who had stayed with him last night.

After his first long day of training, Ash found out that his pokemon had somehow (and no, they wouldn't tell him, no matter how he asked) decided on some sort of system for sleeping with him at night. While he wasn't surprised that they were doing something like this, as he usually slept with his pokemon when he was traveling, he was surprised that they had some sort of system to do so.

Pikachu was, as per usual, curled up on the pillow next to Ash, his tail draped over his nose. The mouse's chest rose and fell with his breaths, and he let out a small squeak in his sleep as Ash ran a hand over his oldest partner's back. Closer to Ash's chest, her snout pushed into Ash's side, was Quilava. The fire-type was half curled up in a ball, although at some point during the night her upper-half had snuggled closer to her trainer, taking advantage of her smaller size. As the pokemon was still asleep, Ash took the time to more closely examine her.

First checking her teeth, he didn't see any real problems, although they did seem to be extending further out of her mouth than in the past. Carefully rolling the weasel onto her back, Ash tested the range of his pokemon's joints and checked for injuries, happily noting that apart from some healing cuts and small bruises, Quilava appeared to be in good health. Allowing the pokemon to naturally roll back onto her side to continue sleeping, Ash noticed that the darker fur on her back seemed to be growing more than before, and was beginning to flare out to the sides. Coupled with the larger fangs and slight aggression that he'd noticed, he would guess that she was close to evolution. Of course, he had no idea when this evolution would take place, but he bet it wouldn't take too long with how hard they were all training.

Finally turning towards the last pokemon with him that night, Ash smiled as he stroked Bayleef's neck. The dinosaur had claimed his feet pretty much when he got into bed, and didn't see a need to relinquish them anytime soon. Luckily, it was easier to tell how Bayleef was doing than it was Quilava, as like most of his grass-types, her health was indicated by her plant-like qualities. Her leaves and buds were in great health as usual, although near the leaf, it seemed that a pair of nubs had begun to sprout. In addition to this, the buds around her neck were beginning to split, revealing the flowering insides that were very close to blooming. It appeared that like Quilava, Bayleef was also nearing evolution. Ash wouldn't be surprised if the evolutions happened simultaneously, as the evolution of one sometimes jump-started the process of the other, especially if both were already close to evolving. Ash sat up slightly, and carefully, as to not dislodge Quilava, pressed a gentle kiss to the top of Bayleef's head.

With a quiet cry, Bayleef began to stir, and rubbed her head against the hand pressed against her neck.

"Heh. Morning Bayleef." Ash quietly intonated, making sure not to move too much, as to not make up Pikachu and Quilava.

"Bay," his pokemon replied, letting out a massive yawn and blinking her large eyes at her trainer.

"You doin' alright today sweetie?" Ash said, scratching his neck with one hand while using the other to rub Bayleef behind one of her ears. As the pokemon leaned into his hand, Ash chuckled. "Guess that's a yes." Running a finger over the nubs on top of her head, he smiled and continued. "I think you're getting close to evolving Bayleef. You and Quilava are both showing the physical signs, and even though you're not quite as aggressive as she is right now, I'm not too surprised by that. If you evolve though, remember to not body slam me quite as hard, since you'll weight much, much more."

Bayleef sheepishly hung her head at that, and lightly shoved at Quilava with a vine. It seemed that the weasel hadn't been quite as asleep as Ash thought, as she snapped at Bayleef's vine with a hiss, and only calmed down once Ash ran a hand over the back of her neck. The slight commotion had also woken Pikachu, who, although obviously annoyed, deigned to not shock the rest of his bed-mates that morning.

"Alright you lot, that's enough," Ash said with a laugh. "I swear, some days I feel like you're all a bunch of children." At their outraged looks, he quickly continued. "Very strong children who don't listen to their trainer as well as they should, of course." For some reason, this seemed to slightly mollify his pokemon, and he breathed a short sigh of relief. "Okay then. Let's get today started, shall we?"

* * *

"Hey!" Ash shouted, as the large group in front of him continued making various sounds. "Quiet down you lot!" This somewhat seemed to do the trick, as his pokemon quieted down a bit, although were still loud enough that he had to seriously raise his voice to be heard over them. "That's better. Now today, we're gonna be working on strengthening your existing moves, and making sure that you can use all of them well and with accuracy. I know that sounds a little boring, but if you can't use your current moves well, then learning new ones isn't going to be as successful. And what's more," he laughed, "I know what moves all of you have, or at least had last time I saw you. If you can't show me that you can use all of your old moves correctly, then I won't help you learn new ones. That goes for new moves too," Ash said as an aside, faux-glaring at Donphan, who trumpeted embarrassingly. "But that doesn't mean that I won't help you with those moves if I need to. Everybody break!"

A few days of training had helped Ash's pokemon get used to his new habit of making speeches to the group, and luckily they were all fairly used to being independent, so going into groups wasn't much of a problem. Even if some of them had to have a little more help here. Speaking of groups that needed more help, there was Oshawott's group goofing off again. Well, not goofing off per say, but not exactly doing what he asked. Sighing, Ash signaled to Pidgeot, who had been keeping an eye on them, to herd them towards her group. Oshawott and the others weren't strong enough to train with Pidgeot's group, but that was his most controlled group, so giving them some weaker pokemon to watch wasn't too much of a problem. And speaking of problems, Ash noticed another approaching. Three problems to be exact.

"Hey guys." The three tauros mooed back and dug their hooves at the ground impatiently. "Yeah I know, I know. But you have to trust me when I say that Professor Oak and I are working on a solution. I want to make sure that all of you find good trainers, and good trainers who like to battle at that. So it might take a little while, but we will make it happen, alright?"

The tauros huffed in response, but luckily they all seemed to listen. They had been asking him every day, but maybe this would put them off for a little while longer. Preferably a week, as talking with the professor yesterday suggested that it would take about that long to sort out solid trainers and run background checks on them. The World Trade Organization was available and running as per usual, but the minimal fee they charged for their services multiplied with requests for background checks and direct communication with another trainer. On top of that, he also had to find trainers that wanted to train a tauros, and had pokemon to trade of relatively comparable power levels. And on top of that, the professor thought it would be a good idea to actually look at the pokemon they were trading, since Ash didn't have a psychic-type or a fairy-type. So it really was taking a while, but he didn't quite know how to explain such a thing to a bunch of irritable bull pokemon. He was just lucky that they had even listened to begin with.

Deciding to put the Tauros out of his mind for the moment, Ash headed over to his largest group, who seemed to be somewhat focusing for once, with most of the pokemon practicing the moves they already knew. The vast majority of the pokemon seemed to already have a handle on their moves, so Ash figured he could start helping them on new ones today or tomorrow, but first he needed to help out the pokemon who were already struggling with new moves.

Donphan in particular looked to be having a hard time, Ash thought as he walked up to the ground-type, who trumpeted loudly upon seeing his trainer. With a smile, Ash rubbed the pokemon on top of his head, and grunted as he sat down, to be closer to ground level.

"Hey bud. Still having trouble with the fangs?" At Donphan's embarrassed look towards the ground, Ash sighed slightly. "Don't worry about it. It can be hard to get a handle on elemental moves that aren't of your type. Look, do you remember why I had you start working on these moves in the first place?"

Donphan looked confused at this, and rumbled with uncertainty. "Huh. Well, that's probably on me for not making it clear enough. We both know that you're usually a physical pokemon, but when you're up close and personal, you can't do a whole lot without momentum for rollout or takedown. And the backlash from a hyper beam or hidden power can hurt you almost as much as the other pokemon. So the point of these moves was to give you more options if you find yourself in a sticky situation. And also, there is the benefit that a couple of the moves are super-effective on the types that you have a harder time with. So how about you show me what you've got so far."

Standing up and stepping slightly back from his pokemon, Ash called out, "alright Donphan, start with crunch." Donphan bared his teeth at a nearby rock, and with a deep rumble, bit down, dark energy crackling around his teeth. "Good, now fire fang!" Taking a second to build up the necessary energy, Donphan once more lunged forward, this time with small embers coming from his mouth, leaving scorch marks on the rock. "Great, now finish with thunder fang!" At this Donphan stood for a long moment, concentrating quite hard, but once it appeared nothing was happening, huffed and sat down on his haunches.

Ash frowned. "Okay, you've definitely got the beginnings of crunch and fire fang down, but you're having some trouble with thunder fang. I think that you'll get the first two sooner or later, but it might help to work with Krookodile for crunch and Incineroar for fire fang, as they both already know those moves. I'm wondering if you're having problems with thunder fang because you're never actually felt much electricity. Your hide's too thick for most electrical attacks to really have much effect, and most of it is just grounded right away. I'm thinking that we probably need to go to Pikachu to have him hit you with some electrical moves. That way you might be able to get an idea of what you should be doing. Let's do that right now, and then we'll go find Krookodile afterwards. I trust that you can ask Incineroar on your own?" At Donphan's nod, Ash grinned. "Perfect. Now I think Pikachu's group was over by the lake today, since Greninja was complaining about not having any water to practice with."

It only took a few minutes to find Pikachu's group, which was good, since even though Ash was in good shape, he still found it hard to keep up with a pokemon that used rollout to get everywhere. Once he found the group, he realized that they were only following his instructions in the vaguest sense. While Snorlax seemed to somewhat be practicing, as he was periodically firing hyper beams in-between other moves, and Sceptile seemed to be working on some sort of new move, Pikachu, Greninja, and Charizard were at it again. At least this time they were using a variety of moves, which Ash guessed was how they decided they were doing what they were supposed to be.

"Pikachu! Get your furry little butt over here. Charizard, Greninja, maybe actually do what I told you to do?" Jerking up at Ash's voice, Pikachu launched off of Charizard's back, where he had apparently planted himself, and landed in front of Ash. Charizard growled in their direction and scratched his back. Roaring at Greninja, he then launched himself into the air before landing by Snorlax and immediately firing a fire blast into the air. Looking at Greninja, Charizard smirked and crossed his arms, before being forced to jump back as Greninja manipulated a wave of water to splash directly where Charizard had previously been standing.

Sighing once more, Ash shook his head as he watched his two pokemon begin to posture. At least they had been practicing for a moment. Turning back towards Pikachu and Donphan, Ash gave a weak smile. "Pikachu, I know you know better than that, but I'm gonna let it go for now so that we can help out Donphan. He's been having trouble learning thunder fang, and I think it's because he's never been hit with a strong electrical attack or really felt electricity. So what I'm going to have you do is shoot thunderbolts into his mouth. Donphan should be fine because of his natural resistance to electricity, even if these are avoiding his hide, where most of it's usually deflected. From there we're gonna work on getting thunder fang up to speed. Got it?"

Pikachu nodded with authority and not a little bit of glee at being able to actually use electric moves on a pokemon that usually couldn't feel them, while Donphan visibly gulped and looked quite nervous, but nodded nonetheless.

* * *

Ash really felt for Donphan. It couldn't be fun to have to work with Pikachu at the moment, especially considering how ornery his partner had been recently. It was honestly beginning to be a bit of a problem, and Ash was actually thinking of leaving him behind when he left to go look for Larvitar tomorrow. Maybe that would make him shape up and stop picking fights with Greninja at every possible opportunity. And speaking of Greninja, they really needed to practice their forms again soon, just in case of any serious battles. For now though, he should probably focus on what was in front of him, that being Blastoise and Krookodile posturing and comparing sunglasses.

"Hey guys," Ash laughed, "gonna actually work on your moves anytime soon?" While Krookodile looked at least a little abashed by this, Blastoise certainly didn't, and smirked at his trainer before flicking Krookodile's glasses back at the other pokemon and snatching his own. Krookodile fumbled at the glasses, but managed to catch them. Quickly sliding them up his snout, the dark-type shot a glare at the turtle, who cocked his cannons in response.

"Heh. Alright then. Why don't we channel that energy into a battle?" Seeing that both his pokemon seemed to be amenable to his suggestion, Ash smiled and took a couple steps back. "Then let's see it. No holds barred, keep back on new moves unless you think you can use them at full-speed, even if they're not perfected yet. Fight until incapacitation, knockout, or I stop the battle. Ready? Begin!"

As Ash brought his hand down to signal the battle's start, he had to leap back, landing in a crouch as Blastoise shot a high-powered blast of water at Krookodile. Unfortunately for the water-type however, Krookodile's reflexes were more trained for active battle, and the croc had immediately dug under the ground on Ash's command, which gave him the ability to control the early battlefield. This stunned Blastoise for a moment, and before he could recover, his leg was snagged and dragged under the earth. Snapping out of his stupor, the turtle pokemon retracted the rest of his limbs into his shell and blasted water out of all holes, something that Ash hadn't seen him do since he was a squirtle. With this unexpected move, Blastoise managed to hit Krookodile, filling the ground-type's mouth with water. All this really did was piss Krookodile off, and the Unova-native came out of the ground frothing and snapping his jaws wildly.

Changing tactics, Krookodile slammed his foot into the ground, causing a jagged pillar of stone to slam into Blastoise's stomach, even as the water-type got off a quick ice beam, hitting Krookodile before he himself was launched back. Snarling, the crocodile coated his jaws in fire (surprising Ash, who didn't know that the pokemon had been working on fire fang) and latched onto his own shoulder, slightly burning himself but melting the ice that had begun to coat his left foreleg. Blastoise had recovered in this time, and had dropped to all fours, ducking his head into his shell and glowing white as he slowly inched forward. As the older pokemon suddenly sped up and shot forward in a skull bash, Krookodile seemed to consider his options before leaping up as Blastoise charged at him, taking the hit in the stomach.

Even as the breath left Krookodile, he managed to dig his claws into the cracks between Blastoise's shell. Holding on tightly, his jaws flashing black with dark energy, he firmly bit down on the turtle's head, his mouth covering almost the whole skull. As Blastoise struggled, blasting water wildly in an attempt to knock the other pokemon off, Krookodile simply bit down harder, and Blastoise began to slow. Before he could fully fall to unconsciousness however, Ash stepped closer.

"That's enough. Krookodile, let go."

Staring at his trainer for a moment, Krookodile minutely tightened his grip before letting go. Blastoise fell to the ground, gasping for air, before slowly pushing himself up on all fours and then up on his back legs, rubbing at his neck and stomach. Taking a deep breath, he readjusted his sunglasses and gave Krookodile a thumbs-up. In response, Krookodile stepped towards Blastoise and slung his arm around the shelled-pokemon. Grinning at Ash, Krookodile mimed taking a picture with his free hand. Grinning back at his pokemon, Ash grabbed an old pokedex from his back pocket and snapped a couple quick photos of his pokemon. Smiling as he looked at the photo, Ash sat down, and motioned for his pokemon to do the same.

"That was a good fight. But, obviously both of you struggled a bit. Blastoise, let's start with you. You started well, but were thrown off when Krookodile avoided your first attack. If you want to fight in higher-powered battles then you need to be able to adapt on the fly like you used to. It's probably just a matter of practice, since you did well once the battle continued, but at that point you had already taken a bit of damage that stopped you from fighting at your best. The other main problem is that you didn't have anything to help you escape once Krookodile had a hold on you. That's a challenging one, since his species are particularly good at holding onto their prey, but you panicked. A better way to escape would have been through your arms, but if I remember correctly, you don't have any moves that you can perform that way, do you?"

Here Blastoise nodded at his trainer, and scratched his head in confusion. Ash nodded to him, apparently in deep thought. "Well then, we'll just have to fix that. If I'm right, you should be able to learn brick break, as well as another couple of moves that could help you break out of holds. Brick break first, and then we'll consider others." This seemed to please Blastoise, and the water-type grinned in response, canines protruding from his mouth.

"Now Krookodile. You on the other hand, started the battle well, but got a bit flustered when Blastoise managed to hit you. Or really, you got pissed, and didn't have the boosted attack of moxie to make up for it. Taking the hit from Blastoise in order to latch on was smart, but what were you going to do if you couldn't get ahold of him? Then you would have just taken a strong attack with nothing to show for it. While it worked out now, there's no guarantee that it would work in the future, and you wouldn't have been able to fight for much longer after that, would you?"

Krookodile sheepishly scratched at his stomach, where a deep bruise was already beginning to form, and shook his head negatively at Ash. "Exactly. But to be fair, your use of fire fang was quite clever, and you did use a number of techniques that I hadn't seen from you yet, so very good job there. You really just need to focus on being a little smarter with the hits that you take, and a little more variety never hurt anyone either. Got it?"

Seeing both his pokemon nod at him, Ash smiled, and braced his hands on his knees before standing. That fight had gotten him in a mood, and he thought that it might be a good idea to do some hands on training with some of his weaker pokemon, lest he get out of practice. It would be a good idea to do some light training before heading to Mt. Silver to find Larvitar anyway. And while he didn't think anything would happen while there, there had been a feeling building in the back of his mind for days, and he wasn't foolish enough to ignore those feelings anymore. Something was stirring, so he did have to be prepared.

* * *

Luckily for Ash, groups two and three had stayed relatively near each other today, so Ash stopped in with a couple of pokemon from the smaller group before finding those that he needed to from the bigger one. His first inclination was to go to some of his pokemon he was more experienced with, like Snivy or Buizel, but maybe something else could work. With this in mind, Ash saw that Leavanny and Kingler were training together today, and made his decision.

"Leavanny, Kingler, come over here for a second!" Once he saw that both his pokemon had heard him and were approaching, Ash continued. "Listen, I have to go talk to some pokemon about a trip that we're going on tomorrow, but after that, I want to train with both of you. We're gonna be doing something a bit different though. You're both going to be working together to hit me, while I do my best to avoid you. Because of this, Leavanny, I want you to make me some quick clothes that will be able to take a few hits. Don't worry about hurting me, I think I've shown that I can take a punch. I'll make sure to get someone to give me something that I can hit you both with though, just to simulate hits, since I doubt I could do major damage to either of you. That sound good?" At their excited cries, Ash smiled, and walked towards the bigger group. Luckily he could see Noivern, even though he couldn't see Bayleef in that group or Quilava in his current one. Bringing his hands to his mouth and making a shrill, high-pitched whistle, Ash quirked a smile as he saw Noivern immediately stop his moves and zoom towards him.

Once Noivern got closer to him, Ash held up a hand, causing the dragon-type to quickly brake before landing in front of him with a cry. The young pokemon then slammed his head into Ash's chest, causing the trainer to cough as he was reminded that Noivern was quite a bit bigger than he used to be.

"Hey bud," Ash gasped, rubbing the pokemon's red crest. "Got something fun for you. You and a few others are going to be coming with me tomorrow to look for an old friend of mine, and I'm gonna be flying on you, since I think you're finally big enough. I don't have a mount, since you're still growing, so we'll have to be a little careful, but it should be fine. First though, I need you to find everyone that I'm taking and let them know. You'll need to find Quilava, Bayleef, Lycanroc, and...Goodra I think. Got that?" Ash barely managed to get the words out of his mouth before Noivern once more shoved his head against Ash and shot into the sky, circling for a moment before heading back towards his group, likely to look for Bayleef. Chuckling, Ash shook his head before turning to find Oak, who had somehow managed to sneak up on Ash while he was talking to his pokemon.

"Gah!" Ash shouted, falling to the ground and landing on his back. "Damn Professor," he said at the old man's laugh, "didn't think you could still be so quiet. Thought more joints would pop or something."

At the trainer's cheeky comment Oak scowled, and reached out to lightly smack Ash on the back of the head. "I'm not that old yet! But I didn't come out here for that. I knew that you were leaving to look for Larvitar soon, and it seems like we were on the same wave-length here. You see, there's a tournament happening at a town in Johto that's pretty near to the base of Mt. Silver. I don't know how long you'll look for Larvitar for, but if you happen to find him quickly, the tournament is happening in about 5 days. It'd be good practice for you I think, especially if what Professor Ivy tells me about you battling Drake again is true. Actually, the tournament is happening in Silver Town, so you'd be able to revisit the town. You can register up to the day of the tournament, but I don't know how big it's going to be, so be ready for a bit of a challenge if you enter."

"Thanks Professor! If I'm back in town by then I'll definitely enter, but finding Larvitar takes first priority. But now I have to get back to Leavanny and Kingler, since I promised I would train with them for a little. I'll see you later Professor!"

In another strange coincidence, Ash found Boldore on his way back, and was able to convince the rock-type to provide him with a couple small stones from a stone edge so he could do his best to give his pokemon a challenge. Thanking the pokemon and sending them on their way, Ash continued back to his other pokemon, who looked to be ready, Leavanny having made what almost looked like chest armor and gauntlets. It definitely looked too complicated to have been made in the 10 or so minutes that he was gone, but that was Ash's pokemon for you. Always surpassing expectations.

Slipping on the clothes, Ash was pleased to find that like all of what Leavanny made, they were light, and what they lacked in protection, they made up for in mobility. Looking up and nodding to his pokemon, Ash immediately had to leap backwards as they went on the attack. Leavanny was charging forward in what looked like an x-scissor, while Kingler was filling the air with bubbles to startle Ash and make him easier to hit. Rolling and landing in a crouch, Ash ducked under the swinging arms of Leavanny and ran towards Kingler, who let out a gurgle and scuttled to the side before suddenly swinging a crabhammer at his trainer. While Ash was able to dodge this attack, it left him open to Leavanny, who grabbed at Ash's arm and took a bite out of the leaves covering it.

Shrugging out of what was left of his arm guard, Ash swung his other arm up towards Leavanny, hitting the bug-type in the side and causing him to let out a shriek. Ducking out of the pokemon's grip, Ash took a step closer to hit him again, but was forced to back away as Kingler slammed the ground where Ash had been standing with a stomp. This proved to be enough of a distraction for Leavanny to recover, and the other pokemon shook his head before charging and firing an energy ball. Cursing, Ash did what first came to mind, and stabbed at the energy ball with one of his stones, causing the ball to explode and mostly dissipate at chest height, but also shattering the stone in his left hand. Realizing that he was about to be caught on the back foot, Ash decided some trickery may be in order, and the moment he saw Leavanny begin to charge up another energy ball, stepped into Kingler's path. Batting away Kingler's attacks with his remaining stone and gauntlet, once he saw Leavanny release the next blast towards him, Ash dove to his left, leaving Kingler to be smashed back by the friendly-fire.

The crab didn't seem to be too pleased by this, and once he had slightly recovered, shook his larger pincer at Leavanny, who was frantically apologizing. Ash had taken this time to sneak behind Leavanny, and managed to slam his stone into the thin part of Leavanny's back, driving the pokemon to his knees. Before he could do much more however, Ash was blasted backwards by what he thought was a hyper beam fired by Kingler.

Gasping for air and quite glad that he had Leavanny give him some protection (that was currently scattered all around him), Ash raised his hand in the air and dropped his stone. "Alright, I give, you guys win." Taking a second to sit up, Ash decided that it wasn't a great idea to stand up yet, and looked at his pokemon, who were staring at him with a bit of worry. "It's alright, I'll be fine soon, just that last hit took a lot out of me. Good job you two. Need to be careful of friendly fire though, and Leavanny I was able to hit you a number of times, which likely would have taken you down if I was a pokemon. You need to remember that you're pretty frail, so you have to get your hits in fast and make them count."

Once his pokemon responded in manners that made Ash believe that they had heard him properly, Ash smiled and gave them a thumbs-up. "You're both well on your way to becoming stronger, ya just need to work on a few things to get there. I'm proud of you both, especially because I know some of the others would have had a hard time taking me out as fast. Teamwork is always good for that kind of stuff." As his pokemon cried out happily to him and each other, Ash blinked and realized that the way the two were acting reminded him of someone else, someone who wouldn't be able to come back as easily Larvitar. How was Poipole doing anyway?

* * *

Fleeing through the dark, the purple ultra beast tried its best to keep from making any noise.

The...Creature had started to hunt them soon after the beast left, and though some of its kin had escaped, many had not, and lived in the same sort of fear that it did now. They hadn't known where the Creature came from at first, but then the portals began to open up again. No more Creatures came through, but other things did. Things that weren't as kind as the beasts, and wanted something more substantial than amusement.

As the beast hid and trembled in fear, it heard a noise outside the cavern. It hadn't thought it had been followed, but maybe whatever it was didn't want to harm the beast? Perhaps a quick look wouldn't hurt? Slowly approaching the edge of the cave, the beast carefully poked its head through the opening and looked towards where the noise had come from, only to freeze in terror. Rushing backwards, the beast could only hope that the cave would be too small for the Creature to fit through. As the beast huddled in the back and wished for something to help it, the Creature's long, black arm slowly reached for it.

Poipole screamed.

* * *

A/N: Hey y'all, sorry it's been so long! I have a whole lot of excuses I could give, but really I just forgot that every semester of college kicks my ass at the start. But enough about that, how about those anime episodes? Serious crazy stuff there. If you've read this far, then you know that I obviously didn't expect Ash to win the league, or for Hau to be relegated to a one-on-one. But very cool nonetheless, and it's making me think about if I want to actually include a certain pokemon that wasn't going to be around otherwise. Let me know if y'all think it's a good idea. As always, thanks for reading, and let me know what you think about the chapter!


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